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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00825 7088
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014
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BIOGRAPHICAL
ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND
OF
The Nineteenth Century.
NEW YORK : METROPOLITAN PUBLISHING AND ENGRAVING CO.
1881.
Copyright, 1879, H. CLAY WILLIAMS.
1193951 PREFACE.
BOTH History and Biography are valuable adjuncts in the culture of the race. Each has its province, which, if not absolutely distinct, is still outlined with suffi- cient precision for practical purposes. History deals with the more general facts ; is large in outline, stretches over great space and long time, records the actions of great masses, as states and nations, or the dealings of nation with nation. If it busies itself with individuals, it is only or chiefly in their relations to larger numbers, to communities or commonwealths. It is continuous, unbroken,-or if divided into parts, then only for convenience, to abridge the whole into proportions commensurate to the time to be devoted to it, or to expand the account of single peoples by a minuter detail of their corporate actions. History is thus comprehensive, general, national. It deals less with individual character than with universal laws and with actions peculiar to men in their united capacity. But the province of Biography is much humbler, much less comprehensive, yet scarcely less important. It records
individual actions, not alone in their relations to the Commonwealth, but in their relations to other individuals. In its more extended and complete form it may record, in extenso, the dealings of man with man, or of a man with a commonwealth. But the point of view is entirely different in Biography from that of History. In the latter the Individual is unimportant, except in his influence on the state or the nation. His personal purity and greatness have no existence for history, apart from their bearing upon public affairs. But in Biography the Individual is all-important. The facts of his life are the objects of our study, and secondarily, the motives that underlie them. But Encyclopedic Biography deals only with the actions of men, the facts of their lives, and leaves all criticism of motives to the reader. It thus vouches for the character of no one, but puts the facts before the world and leaves the world to mature its own judgment therefrom. It is itself a subordinate depart- ment of history, but a history of an individual in contrast with the history of masses. In History proper we watch the drift of events, the general current of affairs. In Biography proper we note the events of the individual life, which may or may not be concerned notably in producing that general current. Or, to modify the illus- tration somewhat, in History we trace the course of the main river in its windings, while in Biography we pursue to their sources some of the thousands of rills that contribute to swell the mighty current.
This work, then, lays no claim to historic merit, except the history of Individuals.
iv
PREFACE.
The annals of the Commonwealths of Connecticut and Rhode Island have been often and well written, and little or nothing remains to be added thereto. But the Biography of their noble and worthy sons is all unwritten, except in rare instances. No States in the Union have been more fertile in deserving men than these two. To bring the main facts in the lives of some of these into public view is the real object of this volume. We say some, for we do not propose to assert that all the deserving merit of two States is concentrated in this book. Many of the persons here mentioned have lived in public stations but others have lived away from the public eye, in private worth alone. The actions, the lives of both classes are fruitful subjects of study, as a sort of preparation for the larger subject of the general history of their States. But we enter into no vexed questions of political or relig- ious influences, leaving the facts simply to speak for themselves. These facts have been gathered from the most reliable sources, and it is confidently asserted that the record here presented is in every sense trustworthy. It is believed that such a record will be of incalculable benefit, not only to the living, but to yet others who are to come after, and a part of whose culture will be the study of the history- of these very times in which these men, of whom we have written the Biographies, play no mean part. Will it be indulging 'a hope utterly vain, if we venture to foresee that these Biographies may form one of the most acceptable sources from which the future historian of Connecticut and Rhode Island may draw his material, when these, our times, shall have passed into the domain of history ? To so hope is only to anticipate what the past has already demonstrated to be the almost uniform rule. In that justified confidence, then, of present and prospective value, we commit to its fate this volume, freighted, as it is, with the outline of so many valuable and commendable lives. We trust in the verdict the two Commonwealths will pronounce on their beloved sons.
NEW YORK, January 12, 1881.
Theore DiWoolsey.
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA
OF
CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND,
Y OOLSEY, THEODORE DWIGHT, D.D., LL.D., ex-President of Yale College, New Haven. Born in New York, October 31st, 1801. The first American ancestor of his line was George Woolsey, who settled among the Dutch, in what is now the State of New York, during the early part of the seventeenth century. The Rev. Benjamin Woolsey, of Southold, Long Island, grandson of the original immigrant, graduated at Yale College in 1709, and spent the last twenty years of his life at Dossoris, now Glen Cove, on the same island, in the enjoyment of a considerable estate, which came to him through his wife. His grandson, William Walton Woolsey, born at Dossoris in 1766, became a merchant in New York, and was long an important member of the Chamber of Commerce, Treasurer of the American Bible Society, and in connection with various other public institutions. He married Elizabeth, sister of President Dwight, of Yale College, who had previously married his sister. By her he had seven children, all of whom attained maturity and became heads of families. The sixth of these was Theodore Dwight Woolsey, who graduated at Yale College in 1820.
Soon after his graduation young Woolsey went to Philadelphia and read law -- but with no wish or intention to prepare himself for the practice of the legal profession-in the office of Charles Chauncey, Esq., a near relative of his father by marriage. The two following years were spent at Princeton in the study of theology, to which he had devoted himself. In 1823-25 he served as tutor in Yale College, having received appointment to that office some months before leaving Princeton. He then resumed the study of thcology, and was licensed to preach in 1825. After further study at home he went to Europe, in May, 1827, and was absent a little more than three years, residing, for purposes of study, in France and Germany for about two years, and spending the remainder of the time chiefly in England and Italy. Returning home in July, 1830, he was elected, in the course
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.
of 1831, to the professorship of Greek in his Alma Mater, and held that office for the next fifteen years. During the earlier portion of his incumbency he published editions of the Alcestis of Euripides, Camb., 1833, 12mo; the Antigone of Sophocles, 1835, 12mo; the Prometheus of Æschylus, 1837, 12mo; the Electra of Sophocles, 1837, 12mo; and the Gorgias of Plato, chiefly according to Stallbaum's Text, 1842, 12mo-which, taken together, constitute a more considerable contribution to Greek learning than had been made by any earlier Greek scholar in the United States. The able and critical C. C. Felton, reviewing these productions in the North American, said : " Professor Woolsey has now completed his proposed course of Greek Tragedies. He has given specimens from among the best works of the three masters in an agreeable form, and accompanied by a body of notes which deserve all praise." A. P. Peabody, in the same periodical, wrote : " We have been astonished to find how easily they [Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4] have initiated the veriest novices in Greek into the intricacies of the ancient drama."
In 1842 Professor Woolsey was one of a committee that established the New Englander, the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon being the principal founder and contributor. President Woolsey's papers, we understand, number over sixty. Among these, four extensive articles on the Revival of Learning in the Middle Ages, several on Divorce, especially in the United States, and three on the Treaty of Washington, together with an address on the Life and Services of President Day, have been the most noticeable. Those on Divorce were afterward enlarged and published in a separate work, entitled, Essays on Divorce and Divorce Legislation, with Special Reference to the United States (New York, 1869; 12mo, pp. 308). On such a topic as this opinions are widely divergent. The Christian public, however, gave them close attention, in view of "the exactness and thoroughness with which they discussed the legal effects of this great question, as well as from the sound discrimination displayed in the examination of its social aspects."
In 1845 the health of his wife required Professor Woolsey to be absent from his post for a considerable portion of the year, during which he visited England, France, and Italy, and had the great satisfaction of going to Athens, and of travelling into the Peloponnesus and Bœotia. Before his return President Day had determined to resign the office which he had filled with most eminent success and acceptance ; and on finding that it was the earnest and general wish of the Trustees, the Faculty, and the public that he should be the successor of that gentleman, Professor Woolsey, after some weeks of hesitation, consented to occupy his place, which he did for the next quarter of a century. His next volume consisted of Discourses and Addresses at the Ordination of Rev. Theodore D. Woolsey, LL.D., and his Inauguration as President of Yale College, October 21st, 1846 (New
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Haven, 1846; 8vo, pp. 100). In his Inauguration Discourse he expatiated upon the value of a classical education. The preacher was an exemplification of his own theory, and as such had been honored by the diploma of LL.D. from the Wesleyan University in the preceding year. A Historical Discourse pronounced before the graduates of Yale College, one hundred and fifty years after the foundation of that institution, was his next publication, and was issued in 1850. Had it been expanded into one or even two volumes, it would doubtless have given greater satisfaction.
Being, by his election to the President's chair, divorced from the teaching of Greek, Dr. Woolsey gave instructions by text-book and lectures in History, Political Economy, and International Law. The latter subject, to which he had not been wholly a stranger, received from him a good deal of attention, and after some four- teen years of study and instruction he published, in 1860, his Introduction to the Study of International Law, Designed as an Aid in Teaching and in Historical Studies. Revised and enlarged editions have since been published-five in all-each containing improvements on the imperfect first one. Some of the highest living authorities have commended this work in the warmest terms. " It is not only excellent in itself," said the North American Review, " but it meets a want long felt. Till now there has not been a fit text-book on International Law for our college classes. For this use President Woolsey's work is especially adapted." It is now used extensively in the academical and collegiate institutions of the United States, and is
also a text-book in the English universities. It has been republished twice in England, has been translated into Chinese, under the superintendence of Dr. W. A. P. Martin, President of the Imperial Tungwai College, and also into Japanese.
In 1871, at the ripe age of seventy years, Dr. Woolsey resigned the presidency of the university over whose fortunes he had presided so long, and has since mani- fested the deepest interest in its welfare as a member of the Board of Trustees, or Fellows, as the charter of the college calls them, down to the present time. In the same year appeared in New York a volume of sermons from his pen, entitled, The Religion of the Past and the Future ; also two sermons, published in New Haven, on Serving our Generation, and God's Guidance in Youth. After the death of Prof. Francis Lieber, in 1872, President Woolsey re-edited, with notes, his work on Civil Liberty and Self-Government (Philadelphia, 8vo, 1874) ; also his Manual of Political Ethics (2 vols. 8vo, 1874.) In 1878 Dr. Woolsey also published a work in two large volumes, entitled, Political Science ; or, the State Theoretically and Practically Considered, which contains the results of the researches and reflections of many years. He has also published sundry single sermons, has been, or is, a contributor to the Bibliotheca Sacra, Biblical Repository, Journal of the American Oriental Society, College Courant (New Haven), Independent, etc., etc., and has also
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.
translated for Dr. Andrews' Latin-English Lexicon, founded on the larger Latin- German Lexicon of Dr. William Freund (New York, 1851). His eulogy on the late President C. C. Felton, in the Smithsonian Report, 1861, and his contributions to the Boston Lectures for 1870, entitled, Christianity and Scepticism, all deserve mention in the record of a busy and beneficent life. He has now in press a small book on Communism and Socialism-theories which are shaking the foundations of European empires, and which make themselves felt even in our democratic republic-the principal matter of which was first published in the Independent, an influential New York weekly newspaper.
Ex-President Woolsey is now in his seventy-ninth year, and devotes a consider- able part of his time to the revision of the New Testament, he being a member and the chairman of the American company engaged in that work in concert with the British revisers. " Through desire, a man having separated himself intermeddleth with all knowledge," is a generalization whose justice this truly representative American scholar most thoroughly vindicates. For several years he was one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and for twenty-five years, until he had reached the age of seventy, one of the most prominent college presidents in the land. Dr. Noah Porter, his chosen successor, forcibly expresses the estimate of Dr. Woolsey, by all who know him best, in the words: " As a scholar, President Wool- sey is distinguished for the exactness of his knowledge, the extent of his erudition, and the breadth and sagacity of his judgment ; as a teacher, for the glow of his imaginative and ethical spirit, and for the vigor of his impartiality in searching after and imparting the truth ; as a theologian, for the extent of his biblical knowledge, the catholicity and candor of his theological opinions, and the fervor of his childlike faith ; as a friend, for the warmth and endurance of his attachments ; and as a man, for a rare assemblage of qualities which have secured to him an enviable place in the love and respect of his generation. Few men have been more distinguished in this country for eminence in so great a variety of departments of scholarship and culture, and few men have secured for themselves the solid respect of so great a number of their countrymen for high personal and moral excellence."
President Woolsey was married, in September, 1833, to Elizabeth M., daughter of Josiah Salisbury. She died in November, 1852, and he soon after married Sarah S., daughter of Gilman Prichard, of Boston, Mass.
I. Maryland,
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.
AYLAND, FRANCIS, D.D., LL.D., late President of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Born in New York, March 11th, 1796. His parents were Francis and Sarah Moore Wayland. Francis Wayland, his father, was the son of Daniel and Susannah (Pritchard) Wayland, and was born at Frome, Somersetshire, England, June 15th, 1772. Sarah Moore Wayland, his mother-daughter of John and Elizabeth (Thompson) Moore-was . born at Norwich, England, August 16th, 1770. She and her husband were married at Norwich, May 20th, 1793.
Of Dr. Wayland's more remote ancestors it is enough to state that they were persons in the middle station of life, of Baptist sentiments, and for the most part of more than usual piety. His parents emigrated to the New World shortly after their marriage, and arrived in New York on the 20th of September, 1793. Mr. Wayland immediately commenced business as a currier. He and his wife united with the Fayette Street Baptist Church, of which he was early chosen a deacon. In politics he was a Republican, in the family circle a methodically religious head, and an earnest student of the Holy Scriptures. Licensed by his church as a lay preacher, his labors were so acceptable and useful that he decided to abandon his lucrative business altogether, and to devote himself exclusively to the work of the Christian ministry. He became pastor of the Baptist Church in Poughkeepsie in 1807; and after that was pastor of a Baptist church at Albany in 1811, at Troy in 1812, and at Saratoga Springs in 1819. The intervals between those dates represent the length of his pastorates. In 1823 he ceased from pastoral cares, but spent his entire time in ministerial and philanthropic labors. His avocations often called him away from his family, and threw the training of the children greatly into the hands of the mother, who had eminent qualifications for the task. Gentle of temper, winning in manner, active in mind, and youthful in feeling, her influence was especially felt by her eldest son, who loved her with fond and reverent devotion. Her beautiful and benign character was perfected and transfigured by the influence of religious principle, and reproduced itself in that of her distinguished son.
His education began in a boys' school-attended by white and colored children- in the rear of the old Methodist Church in John Street. Thence he passed to a school taught by an English clergyman, who was a disciplinarian of the flogging school, and who cultivated the verbal memory of his pupils to perfection. In his eleventh year he entered the Dutchess County Academy, taught by the judicious Rev. John Lawton, and afterward by the able and kindly Daniel H. Barnes. In youth his character is best described by the following lines from the Paradise Regained of John Milton :
" While I was yet a child, no childish play
To me was pleasing; all my mind_was_set,
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.
Serious, to learn and know, and thence to do, What might be public good; myself I thought Born to that end-born to promote all truth, All righteous things."
In May, 1811, young Wayland, then fifteen years of age, entered Union College ; and, upon examination, was admitted to the third term of the Sophomore year. Dr. Nott was then President, and Drs. Macauley and Brownell were the professors. The instructors were able, but the course of instruction was very limited. "Chemistry was scarcely born ; electricity was a plaything ; algebra was studied for six weeks; and geology was named only to be laughed at." Metaphysics and literary criticism were the principal studies. The social influences were bad. He was a hard student, and was never called up for violation of college laws. His advice to his college mates, before they separated in 1813, was an indication of what his own future course would be. " Boys," said he, "we have never done what we could; we have not known what we can do; let us from this time try to make our mark in the world."
Immediately after his graduation, on the 28th of July, 1813, he began the study of medicine under the instruction of Dr. Moses Hale, an eminent physician and surgeon in Troy. Six months later he entered the office of Dr. Eli Burritt. The winter of 1814-15 was spent at New York, in attendance on medical lectures. In due time he received his license to practise medicine, and was considered a promising candidate for professional success. But he had always had a decided impression that he should be a preacher of the Gospel, and had frequently felt that his medical studies were only an incident in his life. His religious convictions led him to an entire consecration to God, and a hearty acceptance of Christ as Lord and Saviour. Hc went to work at once to build up the Redeemer's Kingdom; and when a Sabbath-school was organized in Troy, offered himself as a teacher, and selected a class of colored boys, because they most needed instruction, and because it seemed to be most closely following the cxample of Christ.
Feeling it to be his duty to profcss his faith in Christ, he was baptized and re- ccived into the fellowship of the Baptist church. The preaching of the Gospel now seemed to be the duty to which he was to devote his life, and in the autumn of 1816 he settled his affairs in Troy and set out for the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass., where he was admitted without hesitation. The catalogue of the institution for 1816-17 contains sixty-scvcn names, of which some belong to men who were sub- sequently celebrated in their respective branches of the church. The Faculty con- sisted of Dr. Ebenezer Porter, Professor of Sacred Rhetoric; Dr. Leonard Woods, of Christian Thcology, and Dr. Moses Stuart, of Sacred Literature. The latter soon said
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA.
of his new pupil : " He is an ingrained student." Dr. Stuart taught him to inquire, to reason, to gather knowledge from various sources, and to pour its concentrated light on the interpretation of the revealed Word.
Growth in grace kept pace with growth in knowledge. Funds were short, but purpose was long. The year at Andover closed, and with a strengthened, liberal, cul- tured mind, he next entered upon the duties of a college tutor in his Alma Mater at Schenectady, N. Y. During his second residence there he was called upon, in con- sequence of vacancies existing in the Faculty, to teach every class, and to teach almost everything that was taught in college. Whatever he was doing, his mind was fixed on that one thing, and he tried not to think of anything else. In this way he became proficient in every department of the curriculum. While thus occupied he became well acquainted with the Rev. Asahel Nettleton, received quickening religious impulses from him, and also gained most valuable lessons on the best methods of addressing men on religious subjects.
In 1820 Dr. Wayland was licensed to preach, and supplied feeble churches in the vicinity of the college. He also instructed, during the later portion of his tutorship, a number of candidates for the ministry, carrying them through a portion of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. After spending about four years in Union College, he resolved to resign and enter upon the duties of the active ministry. In the spring vacation of 1821 he went to Boston, taking with him his entire supply of sermons-eight in num- ber-and preached for four Sundays in the First Baptist Church, which was destitute of a pastor. The visit resulted in a call to the pastorate from a small majority of the church and society. The call was accepted. On the 21st of August, 1821, he was or- dained, and assumed the pastoral functions. His preaching was not particularly attract- ive at first, but grew in popularity as the people learned to appreciate his elevated manhood, deep piety, and thorough culture. "They became Waylandites," said the Rev. Dr. Pattison, " not because of any peculiar doctrine taught by him, but because of the influence his moral and intellectual power exerted upon them." For the first eighteen months of his pastorate in Boston he boarded, as an unmarried man, with Rev. Dr. Baldwin, one of his Baptist associates in the ministry. His relations with clergymen of other denominations were cordial and pleasant ; his spiritual experi- ences were similar to those of all earnest, sincere ministers; and he was accustomed to pour out his views and feelings in excellently-written communications to personal friends.
In 1825 Mr. Wayland associated himself with Dr. Baldwin in editing the Ameri- can Baptist Magazine, a periodical intended to promote the religious and mental growth of the churches, and to further the evangelization of the world. On the death of his venerable associate he assumed entire charge. At that time he favored a fed-
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA.
erative union of the Baptist churches, but afterward fell back upon the old theory and practice of the independence of the churches. He had already become favorably known as an author by the publication of a sermon on The Moral Dignity of the Missionary Enterprise, preached in his own church, October 24th, 1823, and since re- printed in many forms. "With the exception of Webster's reply to Hayne, it may be questioned whether any passage in American literature has been more often quoted than the paragraphs which delineate the conquering march of the early church." Of the sermon, Dr. A. P. Peabody wrote in 1862 : "Dr. Wayland's sermon on The Moral Dignity of the Missionary Enterprise remains unequalled for grandeur of thought and style. Its periods roll on as if fraught with the glory of a regenerated world. It sent a glow of zeal and joy through the Christian hearts of the land, and, if we remember aright, was reproduced in other tongues." The British Evangelical Magazine, July, 1825, said : " This splendid discourse is, beyond a doubt, the effort of a highly accom- plished mind. It is the burst of genius and consecrated zeal. Seldom has it fallen to our lot to peruse a sermon in all respects so valuable. Well may America glory in the man who could rear such a monument." Said Robert Hall: "The author of that sermon will be heard of again." Intellectually, it was the product of long years of careful instruction, and of still more careful and exhaustive study.
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