Commemorative biographical record of New Haven county, Connecticut, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, V. I, Pt 2, Part 1

Author: Beers (J.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1010

USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Commemorative biographical record of New Haven county, Connecticut, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, V. I, Pt 2 > Part 1

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Gc 974.601 N41 v.l,pt. 2 1628680

REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00826 1890

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

http://www.archive.org/details/commemorativebio12inbeer

COMMEMORATIVE

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

NEW HAVEN COUNTY,

CONNECTICUT,

CONTAINING

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS. AND OF MANY OF THE EARLY SETTLED FAMILIES.

ILLUSTRATED.

V.I Pt. 2

CHICAGO: J. H. BEERS & CO. 1902.

1628680

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

391

maternal line was Rev. Joseph Fish, a graduate of Harvard College, and for fifty years the pastor of a church in North Stonington, Conn., whose repu- tation as a man of exemplary piety is sustained by his letters. His eldest daughter, Mary Fish, the mother of Professor Silliman, was first married, in 1758, to the Rev. John Noyes, son of the pastor of the First Church in New Haven. Mr. Noyes died in 1767. Her marriage with Gen. Sillinian took place in 1775. He had been previously married, and a son, William Silliman, the fruit of this earlier mar- riage, was now a youth. Three of her children also survived, Joseph, John and James Noyes, the last two of whom ultimately became faithful ministers of the Gospel, and died at an advanced age. In 1804 she was married a third time, to Dr. John Dickenson, of Middletown, who died in 1811. Her own death occurred in 1818. "She combined in her nature a woman's tenderness with a remarkable fund of energy and fortitude."

Benjamin Silliman was prepared for college un- der the tuition of his pastor, Rev. Andrew Elliot. He entered Yale College in 1792, and was graduated in 1796, and passed the following year at the home of his mother in Fairfield, which had been the place of residence of the Sillimans from the early Colo- nial days. He then taught school in Wethersfield. and was a resident there the greater part of the year 1798. In that same year he returned to New Haven, and began the study of law in the office of Simeon Baldwin ; and in September, 1799, when he had reached the age of twenty, he was appointed a tutor in Yale. This he held until his admission to the Bar, in 1802. One of his classmates and a tutor in Yale with him was Charles Denison, and both were admitted to the Bar at the same time. Denison became a lawyer of high repute. Among his fellow pupils were two with whom he was destined to be intimately associated for nearly the whole of his long life, Jeremiah Day and James L. Kingsley.

At this period in young Silliman's life natural science was beginning to attract the attention of educators. The corporation of Yale had. several years before, at the recommendation of President . Dwight, passed a vote or resolution to establish a professorship of Chemistry and Natural History as soon as the funds would admit it. The time had arrived when the college could safely carry the reso- lution into effect, and at the solicitation of President . Dwight Mr. Silliman abandoned the profession of the law and devoted himself to the profession of science. The circumstances of this change of plan he describes as follows: "The president then did me the honor to propose that I should consent to have my name presented to the corporation, giving me at the same time the assurance of his cordial sup- port, and of his belief that the appointment would be made. I was then approaching twenty-two years of age-still a youth, or only entering on carly man- hood. I was startled and almost oppressed by his proposal. A profession-that of the law-in the

study of which I was already far advanced, was to be abandoned, and a new profession was to be ac- quired, preceded by a course of study and prepara- tion, too, in a direction in which in Connecticut there was no precedent. The good President per- ceived my surprise and embarrassment, and with his usual kindness and resource proceeded to remark to this effect : 'I could not propose to you a course of life and of effort which would promise more use- fulness or more reputation. The profession of the law does not need you ; it is already full, and many eminent men adorn our courts of justice ; you may also be obliged to cherish a hope long deferred, be- fore success would crown your efforts in that pro- fesion, although, if successful, you may become rich- er by the law than you can by science. In the pro- fession which I proffer to you there will be no rival herc. The field will be all your own. The study will be full of interest and gratification, and the pre- sentation which you will be able to make of it to the college classes and the public will afford much in- struction and delight. Our country, as regards the physical sciences, is rich in unexplored treasures, and by aiding in their development you will perform an important public service, and connect your name with the rising reputation of our native land. Time will be allowed to make every necessary preparation ; and when you enter upon your duties you will speak to those to whom the subject will be new. You will advance in the knowledge of your profession more rapidly than your pupils can follow you, and will always be ahead of your audience.'" Mr. Silliman in 1802 was chosen to this professorship, and as a means of preparation for it he passed two winters in Philadelphia in the study of chemistry under Prof. James Woodhouse, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. On April 4, 1804, he delivered his first lecture to the senior class in a public room, hired for college purposes, in Mr. Tut- tle's building on Chapel street, on the history and progress, nature and subjects, of chemistry. "I con- tinued to lecture, and I believe in the same room until the Senior class retired, in July, preparatory to their commencement in September. My first cfforts were received with favor, and the class which I then addressed contained men who were afterward distinguished in life. On the 4th of April, 1804, I commenced a course of duty as a lecturer and pro- fessor, in which I was sustained during fifty-one years." In the following year he gave a complete course of lectures, and in March, 1805. he went abroad to purchase scientific books and apparatus. and spent about a year in study in Edinburgh and London. He also visited and met many distin- guished men of science. Returning to this country, he devoted himself to the duties of his professorship, which included chemistry, mineralogy and geology, until 1853, when he was made professor emeritus, but at the special request of his colleagues continued his lectures on geology until 1855, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law, James D. Dana. The

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

latter, in his inaugural discourse, delivered Feb. 18, 1856, in part said :

"In entering upon the duties of this place, my thoughts turn rather to the past than to the subject of the present hour. I feel that it is an honored place, honored by the labors of one who has been the guardian of American science from its child- hood, who here first opened to the country the won- derful records of Geology; whose words of elo- quence and carnest truth were but the overflow of a soul full of noble instincts and warm sympathies, the whole throwing a peculiar charm over his learn- ing, and rendering his name beloved as well as illus- trious. Just fifty years since, Professor Silliman took his station at the head of chemical and geologi- cal science in this college. Geology was then hardly known by the name in the land, out of these walls. Two years before, previous to his tour in Europe, the whole cabinet of Yale was a half bushel of un- labelled stones. On visiting England he found even in London no school, public or private, for geologi- cal instruction, and the science was not named in the English universities. To the mines, quarries and cliffs of England, the crags of Scotland, and the meadows of Holland, he looked for knowledge, and from these and the teachings of Murray, Jameson, Hall, Hope and Playfair, at Edinburgh, Professor Silliman returned equipped for duty, and creating almost out of nothing a department not before rec- ognized in any institution in America."

While in Edinburgh, Professor Silliman became interested in the discussions. then at their height. between the Wernerians and Huttonians, and attend- ed lectures on geology : and on his return he began the study of the mineral structure of the vicinity of New Haven. "I arrived in New Haven from Scot- land on the first of June, 1806. and on the first day of September I read to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences a report on the mineral structure of the environs of New Haven, which was printed in the first volume of the Transactions of the Acad- emy. This report occupies fourteen pages, and hav- ing been published more than fifty-two years ago- when I was twenty-seven years of age-I have been gratified to find that an attentive re-perusal yester- day (Jan. 6, 1859)-after I know not how many years of oblivion-suggested very few alterations, and I have not discovered any important errors."

About 1807-08 the corporation of Yale was per- suaded by Professor Silliman to purchase the cabi- net of minerals belonging to Mr. Benjamin D. Per- kins, of New York. It was transferred to Mr. Silli- man's chamber, and was the starting point for more extensive collections added afterward. A few years later Mr. Silliman secured the loan of the magnifi- cent collection of George Gibbs, which in 1825 be- came the property of the college.

Professor Silliman's scientific work, which was extensive, began with the examination in 1807 of the meteor that fell near Weston, Conn. He pro- cured fragments of this, of which he made a chemi-

cal anaylsis, and he wrote the earliest and best au- thenticated account of the fall of a meteor in Amer- ica. He began, in 1811, an extended course of ex- periments with the oxy-hydrogen hydric, a com- pound blow pipe, invented by Robert Hare, and he succeeded in melting many of the inost refractory minerals, notably those containing alkalies and alka- line earths, the greater part of which had never been reduced before. After Sir Humphrey Davy's dis- covery of the metallic bases of the alkalies, Profes- sor Silliman repeated the experiment, and observed for the first time in this country the metals sodium and potassium.

Professor Silliman, in 1830, explored Wyoming Valley and its coal formations, examining about 100 mines and localities of mines ; in 1832-33 he was en- gaged under a commission of the Secretary of the Treasury in a scientific examination on the subject of the culture and manufacture of sugar, and in 1836 he made a tour of investigation among the gold mines of Virginia. His popular lectures began in 1808, in New Haven, on chemistry. He delivered his first course in Hartford, in 1834, and in Lowell, Mass., in the fall of that same year. He subsequent- ly lectured in Salem, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis, New Orleans and elsewhere in the United States. In 1838 he opened the Lowell Institute in Boston, with a course of lectures on Geology, and in the three following years he lectured there on Chemistry. "The series were without doubt the most brilliant of the kind that were ever deliv- ered in this country, and its influence in developing an interest in the young science was very great. Many of the present leaders of science trace their first inspiration to those popular expositions of Pro- fessor Silliman."

Professor Silliman was opposed to slavery, and during the Kansas troubles was instrumental in or- ganizing a colony in New Haven for that point and spoke in favor of their being provided with rifles. During the Civil war he was a firm supporter of President Lincoln, and exerted his influence in the abolition of slavery.

In 1818 Professor Silliman founded the Ameri- can Journal of Science and Arts, and it has con- tinued to be edited and published by members of his family from that time to this, aided more or less by other scientific experts. For a long time it was quoted as Silliman's Journal. The Journal was con- ducted by Silliman chiefly alone until 1838, when his son, Benjamin Silliman, Jr., later professor of chen- istry in the college, was associated with him. and with the beginning of the second series Mr. Dana, soon to be made Professor of Geology and Mineral- ogy, became also one of the editors-in-chief. As Dana's part in it became more and more important. it was properly spoken of as the American Journal.

Bowdoin College conferred upon Professor Silli- man the degree of M. D. in 1818, and Middlebury that of LL. D., in 1826. He was the first president of the American Association of Geologists and Nat-

J. A. J. Wilcox, Boston

Seo. R. Brutos .

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

uralists, in 1840, which society later became the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- ence. He was one of the corporate members named by Congress in the formation of the Natural Acad- emy of Sciences. in 1863. He was corresponding member of the Geological Societies of Great Britain and France. He was also connected with other so- ·cieties both in this country and abroad.

Professor Silliman, as referred to in Appleton's Encyclopedia, edited three editions of William Hen- ry's "Elements of Chemistry" (Boston, 1808-1814) ; also three editions of Robert Bakewell's "Instruc- tions in Geology" (New Haven, 1829-33- and 39) ; and was the author of "Journals of Travels in Eng- land, Holland and Scotland" (New York, 1810) ; "A Short Tour Between Hartford and Quebec in the Autumn of 1819" ( 1820) ; "Elements of Chemi- istry in the Order of Lectures given in Yale Col- lege" (two volumes, New Haven. 1830-31) : "Con- sistency of Discoveries of Modern Geology, with the Sacred History of the Creation and Deluge" (Lon- don, 1837) ; and "Narrative of a Visit to Europe, 1851" (two volumes, 1853).

An important event in the life of Mr. Silliman occurred in 1809, about three years after his return from Europe. This was his marriage to Miss Har- riet Trumbull, daughter of the second Governor Trumbull. Jonathan Trumbull. the elder, a graduate of Harvard College. had distinguished himself by refusing to join a part of his colleagues in Council in administering to Governor Fitch the oath to exe- cute the stamp act, and. being chosen lieutenant-gov- ernor, he had himself likewise refused to take the oath to carry out the oppressive measures of Parlia- ment. Chosen governor in 1769, he was re-elected for fourteen consecutive terms-the only Colonial governor who retained his office after the beginning of the Revolutionary war. He stood very high, as is well known, in the esteem of Washington. who pronounced him "one of the first of patriots," and whom he sustained with resolute, unfailing patriot- ism to the end of the great struggle. A sedate Puri- tan, deeply imbued with the spirit of religion. and fearless in the discharge of every duty, he stands among the heroic figures in our national history. His son, the second governor, and the father of Mrs. Silliman, was worthy of such a parent. After filling various important offices he was made gov- ernor of Connecticut in 1798. and held this station until his death. in 1809.

One of Professor Silliman's daughters. Maria. married John B. Church; another, Faith, married Oliver P. Hubbard, professor of Chemistry at Dart -. mouth College, who died in 1900, when ninety years old, in New York : another daughter. Henrietta. mar- ried the distinguished scientist, James Dwight Dana, late professor in Yale University; Julia married Rev. Edward W. Gilman, Secretary of the Ameri- can Bible Society : and Benjamin. Jr., M. D., LL. D. (1816-1885), was a distinguished chemist and scien- tist, a professor in Yale University. The elder

Silliman was married a second time, Mrs. Sarah J. Webb becoming his wife, Sept. 17, 1857, in Wood- stock, Connecticut.

Professor Silliman was styled by Edward Everett the "Nestor of American Science." His person was commanding, his manners dignified and affable, and his general traits of character such as to win uni- versal respect and admiration. He died at New Ha- ven Nov. 24, 1864. A bronze statue of Professor Silliman was erected on the Yale grounds in 1884.

CURTIS. This family is one of the oldest in New England, and the branch in which ran the line of the late Hon. George Redfield Curtis, a promi- nent manufacturer and leading citizen for many years of Meriden, where his widow and son still reside, is one of the oldest of Connecticut. The late George Redfield Curtis was seventh in line from his first American ancestor, John Curtis, the line of his descent being through Thomas, Nathan- iel, Benjamin, Benjamin (2) and Asahel.

(I) John Curtis, born in England, a son of Widow Elizabeth Curtis, was at Stratford, Conn., in 1639, among the first settlers there with his mother and brother William.

(II) Thomas Curtis, son of John, born in 1648, settled in Wallingford, Conn. (one of the original settlers), in 1670.

(III) Nathaniel Curtis, son of Thomas, born in 1677, married (second), in 1702, Sarah Howe.

(IV) Beniamin Curtis, son of Nathaniel, born in 1703, married in 1727 Miriam Cooke.

(V) Benjamin Curtis (2), son of Benjamin, born in 1735, married Mindwell Hough in 1763.

(VI) Asahel Curtis, son of Benjamin (2), and the father of George R. Curtis. born Tuly 2, 1786, married in 1812 Mehitable Redfield. She was from Clinton, Conn., born in 1790, and was a descendant in the seventh generation from her first American ancestor. William Redfield. He was from England, and came to the Colony of Massachusetts at an early day, locating on the Charles river, six miles from Boston. The line of Mrs. Curtis' descent is through James, Theophilus, Daniel, Roswell and Augustus. The last named married Anna Grinnell, through whom Mrs. Curtis was a descendant of John Alden. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Asahel Curtis were: Tennett. Phebe A., Benjamin U., Asahel and George Redfield.

GEORGE REDFIELD CURTIS was born Dec. 25. 1825, in Meriden, in which place in the main he received his education. He began life for himself at the age of eighteen years. as clerk in a dry-goods store in Middletown. remaining so employed four years. In 1847 he went to Rochester, N. Y., and for a year was occupied in teaching school in that vicinity. The following year he pursued the same occupation in Meriden, and in 1849 he became a bookkeeper for Julius Pratt & Co., of Meriden, with which firm he remained until October. 1850. when he was made teller of the Meriden Bank. On Jan.

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7, 1853, the month following its organization, he entered the employ of the Meriden Britannia Co., and in April following was elected its treasurer, a position he held until his death, May 20, 1893, a portion of the time serving also as secretary of the company. For many years of his life his best efforts, energy and ability were given to the great and growing interests of that company, and his la- bor and care contributed largely to its prosperity and success.

Mr. Curtis was always interested in what affect- ed the prosperity of his native town, and his con- nection with the financial and manufacturing con- cerns of Meriden is indicated by the following list of offices held by him. He was treasurer of the Meriden Britannia Co .; president of the Meriden Silver Plate Co .; Meriden Horse Railway Co. and Meriden Gas Light Co .: was director of Manning, Bowman & Co., the Home National Bank, Meriden Trust & Safe Deposit Co., R. Wallace & Sons Manu- facturing Co. of Wallingford, Rogers & Brother of Waterbury, and the William Rogers Manufacturing Co. of Hartford. He was a trustee of the Meriden Savings Bank, and of the Curtis Home for Orphans and Old Ladies.

In his political views Mr. Curtis was a Repub- lican, but never a politician. He served the city as councilman and alderman, and from 1879 to 1881 as mayor. He was intellectual in his tastes and widely read in general and historical literature. Socially he was a most genial and responsive companion and ac- quaintance. As a husband and father he was most loving and indulgent ; as a son most filial in his de- votion to his mother, whose life almost reached a century of years. His religion seemed to be innate. For almost forty-five years he was an officer of St. Andrew's parish and for many years either senior or junior warden. As the years went on and his means increased, he gave to his beloved church mu- nificently. In 1891 his sister, Mrs. Hallam, died and left the bulk of her property to build a new church in Meriden as a memorial to her husband : Mr. Cur- tis supplemented this gift largely, and two days before his death added to liis generosity by pre- senting to the new parish a house and lot for a rectory. Mr. Curtis was elected, on Easter Monday prior to his death, lay delegate to the diocesan con- vention, and he attended the General Episcopal Con- vention at Baltimore in the fall of 1892. He was a member of several committees on the diocesan board. His gifts to St. Andrew's were bestowed with the characteristic modesty that always distinguished him.

On May 22, 1855, Mr. Curtis was married to Augusta Munson, youngest child of Jesse and Sophia (Talmadge) Munson, of Bradford, in west- ern New York. The marriage was blessed with three children, namely: George Munson ; Frederick Edgar, who died in childhood : and Agnes D., Mrs. Allan B. Squire, of Meriden, who died May 20. 1900. The mother of these was born June 17, 1833,

and was in the eighth generation from her first American ancestor, Thomas Munson, a pioneer of Hartford and New Haven, Conn., the line of her descent being through Samuel, Joseph, Ephraim, Jared, Rufus and Jesse.

On the death of Mr. Curtis one of the Meriden- papers thus referred editorially to his life :

One by one the pioneers in the great work of building up Meriden are passing from the stage of human activities. The latest to go is George R. Curtis, so long a prominent figure in the prosperity of his native town. The news of Mr. Curtis' death, while not a surprise, owing to the feeble state of his health for some time past, was never-the-less a severe shock to the community, for none of his colleagues or contemporaries in the larger sphere of Meriden business life was more generally respected. Those who knew him intimately loved him, and his death came to them as a per -. sonal loss. Of a peculiarly refined and sympathetic nature. Mr. Curtis was always courteous and kind, under the most trying circumstances of a busy career. His love for his native town was only equalled by his unflagging interest in everything that pertained to its welfare and his unosten- tatious efforts to assist in every way possible, even at per- sonal sacrifice, the growth and advancement of the commu- nity along the right lines. Like all our leading citizens Mr. Curtis began life at the bottom of the ladder, and by his ability, pluck and integrity worked his way up round by round. But he was never so absorbed in his own advance -. ment as to refuse an encouraging word or a helping hand to others on the same toilsome journey who stood in need of both. His business associates had the most implicit confi- dence in his judgment, and his relations were always infused with that spirit of refinement and gentleness which was a dominant part of his nature. In the rush and complications of modern business life it was a genuine pleasure to find a man like Mr. Curtis with that old-school faculty of smoothing rough surfaces, rounding off sharp edges and bringing har- mony out of discord.

Mr. Curtis held many positions of honor und trust. His. business connections were wide and varied, but he also. found time for other relations necessary to round out a suc- cessful career. He served the city as a member of the council and as its chief magistrate, and zealously devoted to the performance of his public duties the same character- istics that were the secret of his business success. Long an honored member of St. Andrew's church, Mr. Curtis will be missed by every member of the parish. His lite was emi- nently consistent with deeply rooted religious convictions, but not obtrusively so. With a pleasant greeting and a kind word, and acts of charity known only to himself, loved and respected by his fellow-men, George R. Curtis' life- among us has been such that while we are filled with grief because the end has come, we are thankful for such lives for the good they do, for the encouragement they give and for the example they are to others.

George M. Curtis was married Nov. 30, 1886, to Sophie Phillips, who was born May 1, 1869, daugh- ter of Thomas Trowbridge and Catherine (Hurl- but) Mansfield.

AUGUSTUS LINES (deceased) is well re- membered by both young and old in New Haven, in which city all his long life was passed. For thirty years he was a member of the board of assessors, and he was long prominent in commercial circles,. for a time carrying on a business established by his. father, at the corner of State street and Grand avenue.

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Commemorative biographical record of New Haven county, Connecticut, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, V. I, Pt 2, Part 1

Author: Beers (J.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1010

Author: Beers (J.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1010