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TICUT
SIATE
TI
CONNE
LIBRARY
HARTFORD
Connecticut State Library 3 0231 00370 0528
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation
http://archive.org/details/ency05unse
Charlesto. Gross
ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
CONNECTICUT BIOGRAPHY
GENEALOGICAL-MEMORIAL
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
Compiled with assistance of the following
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
SAMUEL HART, D.D., D.C.L.
Dean of Berkeley Divinity School; President of Connecticut Historical Society.
THOMAS SNELL WEAVER
Superintendent of City Schools, Hartford; Journalist, former Editor Willimantic Jour- nal, and associated with New Haven Register, Boston Globe, Hartford Post and Hartford Courant. Member of Library Committee Con- necticut Historical Society.
JOSEPH ANDERSON, D.D.
President of Mattatuck Historical Society; forty years pastor of First Congregational Church, Waterbury; Editor Anderson's His- tory of Waterbury.
WALTER RALPH STEINER, M.D.
Member of State Historical Society; Member of State Medical Society; Fellow of American Medical Association; Secretary Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons; Librarian Hartford Medical Society.
HADLAI AUSTIN HULL, LL.B.
Attorney, New London; Major in Spanish- American War.
STORRS OZIAS SEYMOUR, D.D.
President of Litchfield Historical Society; President of Wolcott and Litchfield Library Association; Rector Emeritus of St. Michael's (P. E.) Church, Litchfield (23 years active rector ).
JOHN GAYLORD DAVENPORT, D.D.
Pastor Emeritus Second Church of Waterbury (30 years active) ; Member of Connecticut His- torical Society; Member of Mattatuck Histori- cal Society; ex-Governor and Chaplain of Con- necticut Society, Sons of Founders and Pa- triots; ex-Deputy Governor National Society, same order.
GEORGE CURTIS WALDO, A.M., LITT.D.
Editor of Bridgeport Standard 49 years; one of Founders of Bridgeport Scientific Society; ex- Vice-President of Fairfield County Histori- cal Society; Author of History of Bridgeport.
FREDERICK BOSTWICK
Librarian New Haven Colony Historical Soci- ety: Register S. A. R., Connecticut; Honorary Member of National Genealogical Society; Member of Connecticut Historical Society, Connecticut Library Association, Mississippi Valley Historical Association; Associate Edi- tor Genealogical History of Connecticut; ex- President New Haven-Chautauqua Union.
GUILFORD SMITH
President of Windham National Bank; Mem- ber of Connecticut Society, Mayflower De- scendants.
LEWIS ELIOT STANTON, A.B.
(Yale, 1855). Member of American Bar Asso- ciation and State Bar Association; Assistant United States Attorney 1870-1885; United States Attorney District of Connecticut 1885- 1888 (resigned); Representative Hartford, 1880.
ILLUSTRATED
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY INCORPORATED
BOSTON
NEW YORK CHICAGO
1917 00
Foreword
E ACHI one of us is "the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time." We build upon the solid foundations laid by the strenuous efforts of the fathers who have gone before us. Nothing is more fitting, and indeed more important, than that we should familiarize ourselves with their work and personality; for it is they who have lifted us up to the lofty positions from which we are working out our separate careers. "Lest we forget," it is important that we gather up the fleeting memories of the past and give them permanent record in well-chosen words of biography, and in such repro- duction of the long lost faces as modern science makes possible.
SAMUEL HART.
BIOGRAPHICAL
12:284
Albert It asthings Patio ,
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
PITKIN, Albert Hastings,
Curator.
From the earliest settlement of New England, the name of Pitkin has been a prominent one in the annals of its his- tory.
A worthy and prominent member of this honorable family, Albert Hastings Pitkin was born August 20, 1852, in Hart- ford, Connecticut, son of Albert P. and Jane Ann (Hastings) Pitkin, and died there October 14, 1917. He was a lineal descendant of William Pitkin, the pro- genitor of the family in this country, who was born in England in 1635, and died December 16, 1694. He came from Eng- land to America in 1659, and was admitted a freeman, October, 1662. He was pos- sessed of an excellent education, and was appointed in 1662 as prosecutor for the Colony ; in 1664 appointed attorney-gen- eral to the King ; in 1675 and until 1690 was representative of Hartford in the Colonial Assembly ; was treasurer of the Colony in 1676 and commissioner to the United Colonies; was appointed in 1676 to negotiate peace with the Narragansett and other Indian tribes; was elected a member of the Colonial Council in 1690. He was one of the principal citizens of the town and was appointed with John Crow to lay out the first Main street and other streets on the east side of the river. He married, in 1661, Hannah Goodwin, the only daughter of the Hon. Ozias and Mary (Woodward) Goodwin. Ozias Goodwin was the progenitor of the Good- win family in Connecticut. Mrs. Hannah (Goodwin) Pitkin was born in 1637, and died February 12, 1724.
Roger Pitkin, eldest child of William and Hannah (Goodwin) Pitkin, was born in 1662, and died November 24, 1748. He was engaged in farming, and was a lead- ing citizen of the community. He served for several years as selectman and was the first school committeeman in 1720. He was appointed captain of the first militia company on the east side of the river, and was actively engaged with his company in the defense f the town against the Indians in 1704 and also at other times. He "owned the covenant" with the First Church of Hartford, No- vember 22, 1685. In 1683 he married Han- nah Stanley, daughter of Captain Caleb and Hannah (Cowles) Stanley. The father of Captain Caleb Stanley was a passenger with the Rev. Thomas Hooker when he came to America. Roger and Hannah (Stanley) Pitkin were the parents of Jonathan, of whom further.
Jonathan Pitkin, son of Roger Pitkin, was born March 1, 1697. He married, in 1728, Rebecca, daughter of Philip Smith, of Hadley, Massachusetts.
Jonathan Pitkin, Jr., son of Jonathan Pitkin, was born in 1730, and died in De- cember, 1812. He married, in 1760, Lucy. daughter of Dr. Joseph and Elizabeth (Hollister) Steele, born January 24, 1740, and died February 20, 1804.
Ezekiel Pitkin, second child of Jonathan Pitkin, Jr., was born January 26, 1763, and died May 22, 1843. Pre- vious to 1807 he married Euphemia Chap- man, and they were the parents of Deni- son Palmer, of whom further.
Denison Palmer Pitkin, son of Ezekiel Pitkin, was born February 15, 1807, died July 18, 1871. He married, in 1828,
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Phoebe Dunham, daughter of Benjamin Turner, of Mansfield, Connecticut. She was born July 10, 1807, and died Sep- tember 7, 1866. Her father was a farmer in Mansfield.
Albert Palmer Pitkin, son of Denison Palmer Pitkin, was born February 27, 1829. He was the senior member of the firm Pitkin Brothers & Company Iron Works. He married, November 4, 1851, Jane Ann Hastings, a daughter of Captain Henry and Sarah Ann (Dewey) Hastings, born December 8, 1828, died February 1, 1876, in Hartford. Mr. and Mrs. Pitkin were the parents of the following children : Albert Hastings, of whom further ; Howard Seymour, born October 31, 1860, died October 23, 1917; and William Taft, born April 20, 1867.
Albert Hastings Pitkin, eldest child of Albert Palmer and Jane Ann (Hastings) Pitkin, was born in Hartford, August 20, 1852, and died there, October 14, 1917. He received his elementary education in the public schools of that city. He was associated with Alfred T. Richards in the Connecticut Mutual Life Insur- ance Company, from which he retired to accept the position of general Curator of the Wadsworth Atheneum and Morgan Memorial at Hartford, Connecticut, specializing in the department of Cera- mics, of which he had been honorary curator for many years. He was for years a student and collector of ceramics, specializing in early American pottery. At the Morgan Memorial at Hartford, Connecticut, he installed the famous J. Pierpont Morgan Collections, consisting of sixteen hundred pieces of ancient glass, bronze, early French and English porcelains, Italian majolica, Dresden fig- urines, early ivories and metal work from Augsburg, and Venetian glass. He also installed the Samuel P. Avery Collec- tions of Cloisonne, and Continental silver
and glass, and the early American silver and antique furniture collections of George Dudley Seymour, and the com- plete installation of all the Ceramics in the Morgan Memorial, which includes two collections of his own. the Early American Folk Pottery and Red Ware Collection and the Bennington Collection, both of which are unrivalled in any museum or private collection in this country.
In connection with this work, he made extensive travels both in this country and in Europe. On one of these trips he visited twenty-six of the principal museums of Europe in order to learn their methods of classification and in- stallation. He visited at this time the great and very unique Exhibition of Mohammedan Art that was held in Mun- ich. This trip was made in company with a friend, the late Dr. Edwin A. Barber, who was director of the Pennsyl- vania Museum of Philadelphia, and they also visited Mexico together. Mr. Pitkin spent ten months in travel on the Pacific coast. There is, perhaps, no finer collec- tion of antique furniture and pottery than that owned and collected by Mr. Pitkin during his life, to be found in the entire State. A portion of his collection has been placed in the Morgan Memorial as a Memorial Loan in his memory by his wife. In addition to his furniture and pottery collections he also specialized in rare books and his library contained many priceless volumes. His "Notes on Early American Folk Pottery, including the History of the Bennington Pottery" have been published since his death by his wife.
Mr. Pitkin was a member of the First Church of Christ of Hartford, which he joined in 1871, when the Rev. Dr. George Leon Walker was pastor there, and who was an intimate friend of Mr. Pitkin dur-
4
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
ing his life and residence in Hartford. He was a member of the Society of May- flower Descendants in the State of Con- necticut, and had served that society as its delegate to three of the meetings of the Congress which was held in Old Ply- mouth, Massachusetts, triennially. He was a member of the National Associa- tion of Museums in America, to which he was often sent as delegate by the Wadsworth Atheneum of Hartford, to its meetings in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Washington, Milwaukee and Chi- cago. He was a member of the Jeremiah Wadsworth Society, Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution ; also the Walpole Society of New York. He gave freely of his store of knowledge and had classified many private collections and installed public collections in Albany, New York; and Waterbury, Litchfield, and New Haven, Connecticut.
On April 23, 1874, Mr. Pitkin married Sarah Howard Loomis, born December 12, 1854, daughter of Chester Martin and Mary Weston (Thayer) Loomis. The latter was a lineal descendant of John Alden and his wife, Priscilla (Mullins) Alden of Pilgrim fame, who came with the company on the "Mayflower" in 1620. The former, Chester Martin Loomis, was a lineal descendant of Joseph Loomis, one of the original settlers of Old Wind- sor, Connecticut, in 1639. Chester Martin Loomis and Mary Thayer were married in Boston, and spent many years there, coming later to Connecticut, where Sarah Howard Loomis was born, graduated from the Hartford High School in 1871, when she went to Boston and passed the examination into the New England Con- servatory of Music, studying there with Carlisle Petersilea and Stephen A. Emory. She united with the First Church of Christ in 1867 and taught in
the Sunday school of that church for many years.
Mrs. Pitkin was treasurer and president of the Hartford Mc All Auxuliary, and visited the Mission Stations in Paris in 1906. She was first secretary of the Ruth Wyllys Chapter, Daughters Amer- ican Revolution, and on its board of management seven years. She was on the board of managers of the Woman's Christian Association. She was charter member of the Hartford Art Club, and served as its treasurer and president, re- spectively. She was charter member of the Monday Morning Club; member of the Mayflower Society of the State of New York, being No. 93, and was sent to the first Mayflower Congress held in this country at Plymouth, Massachusetts, and attended the first meeting of the May- flower Society in New York at the Waldorf Astoria in 1894. When Mr. Pit- kin united with the Connecticut Society of Mayflower Descendants, Mrs. Pitkin joined that also.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Pitkin have been sent as delegates to the Triennial Con- gress at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Mrs. Pitkin lectured on Ireland, the Holy Land, Morgan Collections, and the Mayflower Pilgrims in the Old and New World. She very materially assisted in the compilation of the Pitkin Genealogy, procuring the histories of many members of the family, copying the entire book, reading proof when it was in the process of publication, and making all the indices. She also published the Thayer (her mother's) genealogy and had it privately printed. She assisted in sending out circulars to obtain genealogical material for the Loomis genealogy, and is one of the executive committee of the Loomis Family Association which meets every three years at the Loomis Institute in Old Windsor, Connecticut. She has pub-
5
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
lished as a memorial to Mr. Albert Hast- ings Pitkin his "Notes on Early American Folk Pottery and the Bennington Pottery." She travelled extensively in Europe in 1906, visiting Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland, England and Ireland. She is a member of the Archae- logical Society, Connecticut Historical Society, and many social clubs which rep- resent the best social life of Hartford.
The following are tributes to the mem- ory of Mr. Pitkin; the first, that of the Walpole Society, is beautifully engraved :
Resolutions on the Death of Albert Hastings Pitkin by the Walpole Society:
At a meeting of the Walpole Society, held at the House of the "Club of Odd Volumes" in Boston, on November ninth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, after a feeling tribute paid by one of the members to the memory of the late Albert Hastings Pitkin, it was unanimously voted :
That through a committee consisting of Messrs. H. W. Erving and Luke Vincent Lockwood, the Society express to Mrs. Pitkin its deep sorrow at the loss of its valued associate, and its sincere sympathy with Mrs. Pitkin in her bereavement.
The Society highly esteemed the many excel- lencies of character of their late friend, and valued his companionable qualities and his great interest in all the aims of the Society.
It also greatly appreciated his knowledge of Ceramic Art, and his faithful and persevering study and research into matters connected there- with, together with his ever cheerful readiness to assist others in its study and to impart his infor- mation to all earnest students.
The Walpole society and its members individ- ually have sustained a heavy loss in the passing of Mr. Pitkin.
(Signed) H. W. ERVING, For the Walpole Society.
Resolutions of the Hartford Ceramic Art Club :
Whereas, It has pleased Providence to remove from our midst our respected friend and honor- ary member, Albert Hastings Pitkin, thereby leaving a vacancy in our club that can never be filled; therefore be it
Resolved, That we express our sense of the high character of his attainments, his rare artistic perceptions, his unfailing courtesy, and his gen-
erous help and encouragement to us in our work for the advancement of Keramic Art; and be it
Resolved, That we express to Mrs. Pitkin our profound sympathy in her bereavement, and the assurance that his memory will always be revered among us; and be it
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to Mrs. Pitkin, and that they be spread upon the minutes of the Club.
MRS. H. H. GIBSON, President.
November 9, 1917.
(These Resolutions are beautifully engraved).
Resolutions of the Municipal Art Society :
Resolved, That the Directors of the Municipal Art Society express publicly their sense of the deep loss both to this Society and to Hartford which we have suffered in the death of Albert Hastings Pitkin.
As Curator of the Collection in the Morgan Memorial Building, Mr. Pitkin's thorough knowl- edge of the Art treasures of our city was always gladly placed at the services of any of our citi- zens, and his enthusiastic interest in all that had to do with the artistic life of Hartford, was of the greatest value to this community.
His death so soon after the formal opening to the public of our beautiful Art Collection deprives us of an unique and valuable contribu- tion of service to our civic life at a time when it is most needed.
W. H. HONISS, President. LEILA ANDERSON, Secretary.
Resolutions of the Trustees of the Wadsworth Atheneum and Morgan Memorial :
At a meeting of the Trustees of the Wadsworth Atheneum, held on the seventeenth day of No- vember, nineteen seventeen, the President, Dr. Francis Goodwin, having announced the great loss which the institution had suffered in the death of Mr. Albert Hastings Pitkin, General Curator, the following vote was passed :
Since the last meeting of the Wadsworth Athe- neum, the General Curator, Mr. Albert H. Pitkin, has been taken from us by death.
Mr. Pitkin was interested in the Atheneum long before he had any official position here. This interest was manifested by gifts and loan exhibitions from his varied and valuable collec- tions.
In 1910, he was appointed Curator of the De- partment of Ceramics and while this position was purely honorary he gave to it very largely of his time and thought. He not only made im-
6
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
portant gifts and loans, but he labored zealously and successfully to secure the same from others. In 1916, he was appointed General Curator and from that time he devoted himself untiringly to the work of his office, and he discharged its responsibilities and duties with a faithfulness which is beyond all praise.
His remarkable attainments as a student and collector of Early American Pottery were recog- nized by all of the leading Museum authorities throughout the country, and he had been invited to lecture on this topic during the coming winter, before the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
On the personal side, his death has brought grief to all of his associates, and we sorrow most of all, that we shall see his face here no more.
Resolved, That this Minute be entered on the records of the Atheneum, and that a copy be transmitted to his family with the assurance of the sincerest sympathy of the Trustees of Wads- worth Atheneum in their great bereavement.
McKNIGHT, Everett James, M. D., Physician, Public Official.
The name of McKnight has come down to us from early Scottish times, when it appeared in various forms according to the taste of those who wrote the rules which governed spelling in that day being extremely lax.
The first of the name to come to this country was John McKnight, who was born in Scotland in 1712, and settled in Hartford, Connecticut, about 1738. He was at that time twenty-six years of age. Sometime after living in Hartford he went to New Haven, where he remained for a term of years, but finally returned to Hartford in 1748 and established himself in a successful mercantile business, be- coming later the postmaster of Hartford. He prospered greatly in his business un- til the Revolutionary period, which saw the complete collapse of his business and the loss of his fortune. The bitterness of this blow was increased by the fact that he loaned a large proportion of his wealth to his country, which he was never able to regain. His declining years were spent
on a small farm in the northwestern part of what is now the town of Ellington. Here hardship and privation were, in the main, his lot until his death on March 16, 1785. He married Jerusha Crane, whom he met on a trip in one of his own ships, the voyage being made to pur- chase a cargo of goods for sale in the colonies. His wife was born about 1724, and died September 5, 1783. A son was born to them on June 18, 1759, and died November 12, 1837, little being known of his career beyond the fact that he suc- ceeded his father as a farmer on their land in Ellington, and married Charity Abbe, who died in 1798.
Their son, Horace McKnight, grand- father of Dr. McKnight, continued his father's occupation and conducted as well two taverns, one in Ellington and the other in Enfield. He was also a great student and teacher, and held many minor political offices in the community. Among them we may mention that of school visitor, justice of the peace and town representative in the General Assembly. Besides these activities he was an active member of the Congrega- tional church in Ellington. He was born on October 23, 1790, and died December 27, 1856. He was married on January 26, 1817, to Asenath Kimball, who was born September 27, 1795, and died January 17, 1857. a daughter of Daniel and Merriam (Allworth) Kimball. Her family traces their descent to one Thomas Kimball, who was born in the County of Suffolk, England, in 1733, and brought by his par- ents to the colonies when but a year old.
The father of Dr. McKnight, James Dixon McKnight, was born in Enfield, Connecticut, on August 9, 1826. He mar- ried, October 10, 1850, Mary Fidelia Thompson, who was born on May 26, 1827, a daughter of John and Anne (Ells- worth) Thompson. Her maternal grand-
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
father, Benjamin Ellsworth, was a sol- dier in the Revolution and was present at the execution of Major Andre.
Dr. Everett James McKnight, the se- cond of five children, was born June 12, 1855, and spent his childhood in Elling- ton. He was educated at Hall's Family School in that town, and later was sent to Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven, where he completed his prepara- tion for college. He entered Yale Uni- versity in 1872, and was graduated four years later with the class of 1876, which included a large number of men who later became prominent in public affairs. Among them we may mention Arthur Twining Hadley, now president of Yale, Otto F. Bannard, of New York City, Judge James Brooke Bill, Senator John Kean, Congressman Charles B. Fowler, Elmer P. Howe, and the late William Waldo Hyde. Dr. McKnight was promi- nent at college as a student and in ath- letics, doing much to promote popular interest in football. In the sophomore year he was treasurer of the Football Club, secretary, in the year following, and its president as a senior. After gradua- tion he spent the following year at the Yale Medical School, and then attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City for two years longer, being graduated from there in 1879 with the degree of M. D.
Shortly after graduation he settled in East Hartford and was active in practice there until 1893, when he removed to Hartford. Being more interested in sur- gery than in any other branch of medicine, he has gradually confined himself to that specialty and has become one of the lead- ing surgeons in Connecticut. He has been associated with many institutions in vari- ous capacities, being made in 1889 ortho- pedic surgeon to the Hartford Hospital, and shortly thereafter one of the first as-
sistant surgeons. Upon the death of Dr. M. Storrs in 1900, he was appointed a visiting surgeon of the same institution. For many years he was also surgeon for the New England Railroad Company, and is now consulting surgeon of the Hart- ford Orphan Asylum, the New Britain General Hospital, the Middlesex Hospital (Middletown) and the Johnson Memorial Hospital at Stafford Springs, Connecticut. In 1899 he was appointed a medical direc- tor of the Hartford Life Insurance Com- pany, and retained that position for five years. He has always been active in ad- vancing the general interests of his pro- fession and is a member of many medical organizations, among which we may men- tion the American Medical Association, the Connecticut State Medical Society, the Hartford County Medical Association and the Hartford Medical Society. He has served as president of each of the last three societies, and was a trustee of the American Medical Association at the time of his death. As a member of the Committee of Public Policy and Legisla- tion of the Connecticut State Medical Society he has been instrumental in se- curing good and preventing bad legisla- tion in matters relating to public health. He was also a member of the American Urological Association, the New York Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and an ex- vice-president of the International Asso- ciation of Railroad Surgeons.
Dr. McKnight has always taken a keen interest in public affairs, and in 1893 was elected a representative from East Hart- ford to the General Assembly of Con- necticut. While a member of that body he served as chairman of the Committee on Public Health and was a member of the Fisheries Committee. He was also interested in the social and club life of Hartford, and was a member of the Hart-
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