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ENCYCLOPEDIA - OF -
CONNECTICUT BIOGRAPHY GENEALOGICAL-MEMORIAL
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
Compiled with the Assistance of a
Capable Corps of Advisers and Contributors
0251 9- 433
ILLUSTRATED
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (INC.)
NEW YORK PUBLISHERS CHICAGO
VOL. 7
1
Foreword
E ACH 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
117501
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
MORGAN, John Pierpont,
Master Finaneier.
Celtic in origin, the name Morgan, in the principality of Wales, is older than the advent of the Saxon race or language. The derivation has not been conclusively determined, but Dixon, an English author- ity on surnames, says that it means by sea, or by the sea, which is probably as nearly accurate as any explanation may be. The name is allied to the Scotch ceann mor, meaning big head, or perhaps headland. Another possible derivation is from the Welsh more can, meaning sea burn, which is not essentially different from the former interpretation, by the sea. The name was common at the time of the Conquest, and appears in the Domesday Book and in the Battle Abbey Roll.
In the latter part of the sixteenth cen- tury the family from which were derived the ancestors of the American branch moved from Wales to Bristol, England. The immediate family of Miles Morgan, who came to Massachusetts, was of Gla- morganshire, Wales, and there is reason to believe that his father was William Morgan. Among the early families of the American pioneers there was tradition of a little book owned by James Morgan, the brother of Miles Morgan, dated before 1600, and inscribed with the name of Wil- liam Morgan, of Llandaff. Other evidence in the shape of antique gold sleeve buttons stamped "W. M.," in the possession of James Morgan, pointed in the same con- clusion, and these were said to have been an heirloom from William Morgan, of Llandaff.
Arms-Or, a griffin segreant sable.
Crest-A reindeer's head couped or, attired gules.
Motto-Onward and Upward.
(I) Miles Morgan, who founded the family of his name in New England, was born probably in Llandaff, Glamorgan- shire, Wales, about 1615. Accompanying his older brother, James Morgan, who settled in New London, Connecticut, and John Morgan, who went to Virginia, he sailed from Bristol, England, and arrived in Boston in April, 1636. His first resi- dence was in Roxbury, and there it is be- lieved he remained some years. Subse- quently he joined the company which, led by Sir William Pynchon, had founded Agawam (Springfield) on the Connecti- cut river. It is not a historical certainty that he was with the first company which went inland from Boston, or that he was one of the founders of Agawam. That place was established in 1636, and the name of Miles Morgan appears on the records in 1643, showing that he was there before that time, but how long be- fore is not known.
He became one of the leading men of Agawam. He acquired an extensive tract of land, and was also a trader, sailing a vessel up and down the river. One of the few fortified houses in Agawam belonged to him, and he was one of the leaders of the militia, having the rank of sergeant. In all the fighting in which the little settlement was engaged to protect itself from the attack of the surrounding sav- ages, he was much depended upon for his valor and his skill as a soldier. When, during King Philip's War, in 1675, the
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Indians made an attack on Agawam and nearly destroyed the town, his house was the central place of refuge for the be- leaguered inhabitants. His sons, follow- ing the footsteps of their father, were two noted Indian hunters, and one of them, Pelatiah Morgan, was killed by the In- dians. In the "records or list of ye names of the townsmen or men of this Towne of Springfield in February, 1664, written by Elizur Holyoke," he appears as Serj. Miles Morgan. In 1655-57-1660-62-68 he was a selectman. He served as constable one year, and at different times as fence viewer, highway surveyor, and overseer of highways, and also on various town committees. He died May 28, 1699. A bronze statue of a Puritan soldier stand- ing in one of the public parks of Spring- field enduringly commemorates his fame.
He married (first) in 1643, Prudence Gilbert, of Beverly, Massachusetts. The tradition is that on the vessel on which he came to Boston, Prudence Gilbert was also a passenger, and there he made her acquaintance. She was coming to the New World to join members of her family already located in Beverly. After he had settled in Springfield he sent word to her and proposed marriage. She accepted the offer, and the young man, with two friends and an Indian guide leading pack horses, marched across Massachusetts from the Connecticut river to the "land of the people of the east," where the two young people were married. After the marriage the household goods of the young couple were laden on the pack horses, and the bride, on foot, tramped back to Springfield, one hundred and twenty miles, escorted by the bridegroom and his friends. She died January 14, 1660. He married (second) February 15, 1670, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Margaret Bliss.
(II) Nathaniel, son of Miles and Eliza-
beth (Bliss) Morgan, was born in Spring- field, June 14, 1671. He settled in West Springfield, where he made his home dur- ing his entire life and was a successful farmer. He died August 30, 1752. He married, January 17, 1691, Hannah Bird, who died June 7, 1751. Of the seven sons and two daughters of this marriage, all the sons and one daughter lived to be over seventy years of age.
(III) Joseph, son of Nathaniel and Hannah (Bird) Morgan, was born De- cember 3, 1702. He lived on the paternal farm in West Springfield. He died No- vember 7, 1773. He married, in 1735, Mary Stebbins, daughter of Benjamin Stebbins ; she was born July 6, 1712, and died December 6, 1798.
(IV) Joseph (2), son of Joseph (1) and Mary (Stebbins) Morgan, was born Feb- ruary 19, 1736. He was a captain of militia, and in character as well as in physique he was reckoned one of the staunchest men of Western Massachu- setts. He married, September 9, 1765, Experience Smith, born October 23, 1741.
(V) Joseph (3), son of Joseph (2) and Experience (Smith) Morgan, was born January 4, 1780. Leaving home when he was a young man, he settled in Hartford, Connecticut, and became a successful and respected hotelkeeper. He died in 1847. He married Sarah Spencer, of Middle- town, Connecticut.
(VI) Junius Spencer, son of Joseph (3) and Sarah (Spencer) Morgan, was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, April 14, 1813. His early years were spent in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was edu- cated. When he had grown to manhood he went to Boston and entered the bank- ing house of Albert Wells, where he gained his first knowledge of that busi- ness, in which he afterward became suc- cessful and distinguished. In July, 1834, he moved to New York, entering the
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banking house of Morgan, Ketchum & Company. Remaining in New York only about two years, he returned to his native city and there established himself in busi- ness as a dry goods merchant in the firm of Howe, Mather & Company and Mather, Morgan & Company. Subsequently he went again to Boston, and, still continu- ing in the dry goods business, became a partner of J. M. Beebe in the famous firm of Beebe, Morgan & Company, which in its prime was one of the largest and most influential houses in that trade in the United States.
Mr. Morgan visited England in 1853, and, upon the invitation of George Pea- body, became associated with that great banker as his partner in October, 1854. In ten years he succeeded entirely to the business of Mr. Peabody, and established the house of J. S. Morgan & Company, which shortly became one of the largest banking houses in the world. The later years of his life were spent largely abroad, but he never lost his love for his native country, and during the civil war he gave substantial assistance to the cause of the national government. He was a man of generous instincts, and contributed hand- somely to the support of educational and public institutions. His activity as a lay- man in the affairs of the Protestant Epis- copal church was noteworthy, and among other institutions, Trinity College, of Hartford, Connecticut, owed much to his munificence. He died in Nice, France, in 1895, as the result of an accident. He married, in Boston, in 1836, Juliet Pier- pont, daughter of Rev. John and Mary Sheldon (Lord) Pierpont.
(VII) John Pierpont Morgan, only son of Junius Spencer and Juliet (Pierpont ) Morgan, was born in Hartford, Connecti- cut, April 17, 1837; died in Rome, Italy, March 31, 1913.
He was educated in the English high
school in Boston, and then studied in the University of Göttingen, Germany, where he completed a full course, returning to the United States when twenty years of age. He engaged in the banking business with Duncan Sherman & Company, of New York City, in 1857, and there ob- tained a full knowledge of finance in a house which at that time was one of the most prominent in the country. In 1860 he became American agent and attorney for George Peabody & Company, of Lon- don, with which house his father was con- nected, and in 1864 he engaged in banking on his own account in the firm of Dabney, Morgan & Company. In 1871 he became a member of the famous banking house of Drexel, Morgan & Company, the name of which in 1895 was changed to J. P. Morgan & Company. At the same time he was also a member of the firm of J. S. Morgan & Company, of London, of which his father was the founder, and, upon the death of his parent, he succeeded him in that concern. Thus he was head of the greatest private bank in America, and of one of the most influential monetary insti- tutions in England.
His preeminence as a banker and finan- cier was recognized for nearly a quarter of a century. In those respects he was one of the most potent powers that the United States has ever known, and rivaled even the strongest men in Europe. In the wonderful industrial and financial de- velopment which characterized the clos- ing years of the nineteenth century in the United States, and especially in the de- velopment toward the consolidation of in- dustrial enterprises, Mr. Morgan was not only prominent, but it is not too much to say that, at that time, he exercised the most powerful and helpful influence ever displayed by any man in the financial his- tory of the country. Particularly will his genius and indefatigable labors in the
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organization and development of the United States Steel Corporation be long remembered as a masterly achievement, and, in the opinion of many, as laying the substantial foundation for the great in- dustrial prosperity of the country which followed in the years immediately after this accomplishment.
Mr. Morgan was connected with nearly all notable financial undertakings of his time, and his influence was always of the' soundest character and conductive to the public welfare as well as to the investing interests. A list of the important reorgan- izations of railroad companies, the nego- tiations of loans, and the underwriting of industrial enterprises which have been handled by him would be long and impos- ing. Also in public affairs were his serv- ices to the country of inestimable value. Especially in 1894 and 1895, and at other times of threatened monetary stringency, he contributed substantially and effec- tively to protecting the credit of the United States treasury.
Although, when the banking disturb- ance which developed in New York City in the autumn of 1907 threatened to over- whelm the entire country with supreme disaster, Mr. Morgan had been largely re- tired from active participation in affairs, he came forward again to save the situa- tion. In the grave emergency which then arose he took the lead in measures insti- tuted to prevent the widespread destruc- tion of public credit and overthrow of in- dustrial and financial institutions that was imminent. His leadership in those trying days was unreservedly accepted by men who were foremost in the financial world in New York City, and as well through- out the United States. Among his asso- ciates he was relied upon for initiative and for powerful influence, and even the national administration depended upon his advice and his assistance. After the
battle had been won and confidence re- stored, it was everywhere recognized that his financial genius and his masterly con- trol of men and affairs had been the main instruments in saving the country, if not the world, from the worst disaster that had impended for a generation. The great masters of finance in London, Paris, and other monetary centers of Europe did not withhold their warmest praise and in- dorsement of his accomplishment, while his associates in the American fields of finance and industry have been profuse in acknowledgment of the preeminent serv- ice that he rendered to the country.
Mr. Morgan was also a large investor in the great business enterprises of the country, and a director in more than two- score financial, railroad and industrial cor- porations. Typically foremost among the enterprises in which he held important interests and exercised pronounced influ- ence in the direction of their affairs were the following: The United States Steel Corporation, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company, the First National Bank of the City of New York, the General Electric Com- pany, the Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, the Michi- gan Central Railroad Company, the Na- tional Bank of Commerce of New York, the New York & Harlem River Railroad Company, the New York Central & Hud- son River Railroad Company, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, the West Shore Railroad Com- pany, and the Western Union Telegraph Company.
A man of broad culture and refined tastes, Mr. Morgan did not confine him- seli to business affairs. He was particu- larly interested in art, being one of its most generous patrons, and one of the accomplished connoisseurs of the world.
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Some of the finest works of the great mas- ters of olden times and of the present were owned by him. His collection of art objects is recognized as one of the largest, most important, and most valuable ever brought together by a single private in- dividual. A considerable part of this great collection was acquired during the ten years or so preceding 1908, and has been kept in Kensington Museum, London, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, and in Mr. Morgan's private galleries in London and New York. It consists not only of rare and valuable paintings, but exquisite porcelains, mar- ble reliefs, bronzes, enamels, fabrics, and other objects.
Mr. Morgan's New York residence was in Madison avenue, and he had a country seat, "Cragston," at Highland Falls, New York. He also had a house at Roehamp- ton, near Wimbledon, a suburb of Lon- don, and one near Kensington. Adjoin- ing his New York City residence he had a fine private art gallery which contains many of his art treasures. He was a mem- ber of the leading clubs of New York City and London, was one of the founders and president of the Metropolitan Club of New York, and was for several years commodore of the New York Yacht Club. Particularly interested in the Metropoli- tan Art Museum, he was a generous bene- factor to that institution and was its presi- dent. He arranged to erect in Hartford, Connecticut, an art building in memory of his father, to be called the Morgan Memorial; the cornerstone of this edifice was laid April 23, 1908. He was one of the trustees of Columbia University, a director or trustee of various other edu- cational and philanthropic institutions, a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and several times was a lay dele- gate from the diocese of New York to the general conventions of that religious body.
He married (first) Amelia, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Cady) Sturgess, of New York City. She died, and he mar- ried (second) in 1865, Frances Louise, daughter of Charles and Louise (Kirk- land) Tracy, of New York City. Issue : 1. John Pierpont Morgan, born 1867; graduated from Harvard University, class of 1889, and since then has been engaged in the banking business founded by his grandfather. He resides in Madison ave- nue, New York City, and is a member of the Metropolitan, Union, University, Rid- ing, New York Yacht, and other clubs. He married, in 1891, Jane Norton Grew, daughter of Henry Sturgis and Jane Nor- ton (Wigglesworth) Grew, of Boston ; she was born in Boston, September 30, 1868. They have one son, Junius Spen- cer Morgan, born in 1892. 2. Louisa Pier- pont Morgan, married Herbert L. Satter- lee. 3. Juliet Pierpont Morgan, married W. Pierson Hamilton. 4. Anne Tracy Morgan.
BEECHER, Henry Ward, Clergyman, Orator, Author.
The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, June 24, 1813, fourth son of Lyman and Roxana (Foote) Beecher. His mother died when he was but three years old; his step- mother, under whose guardianship his childhood days were spent, was an Epis- copalian. Both parents were devoted Christians, and his father was one of the most influential of New England pastors. His home training was of the severe New England type, but alleviated by an irre- pressible sense of humor in his father, and a poetic and mystical spirit in his step- mother. He was graduated from Am- herst College in 1834, in his twenty-first year. He did not stand high in college studies, there, as throughout his life, fol- lowing the bent of his own inclination
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rather than any course marked out for him. He made a careful study of Eng- lish literature, submitted to a very thor- ough training in elocution, took hold of phrenology and temperance, and partici- pated in prayer meetings and religious labors in neighboring country towns with fervor. His father, an intense and polemi- cal evangelistic divine for his time, was liberal, taking an active part in theological controversies as against the old school or extreme Calvinistic party in the orthodox church, laying stress on human liberty and responsibility, and also as against the Unitarian denomination, urging the doc- trine of Jesus Christ, the vicarious atone- ment, regeneration, and the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures. On these doctrines, Henry Ward Beecher was reared, and he never to the day of his death lost the impression they made upon his character and method of thought. But at a very early period they passed with him from a dogma to a vital spiritual ex- perience in which, through a conscious realization of Christ as the manifestation of a God of infinite mercy, coming into the world not to judge, but to redeem and educate, Mr. Beecher himself entered into a new spiritual consciousness, in which love took the place of duty in the law of life, and the place of justice in the inter- pretation of God.
Upon graduating from Amherst Col- lege, he entered Lane Theological Semi- nary (Cincinnati), where his father was professor of systematic theology, and pur- sued his studies there, receiving proba- bly quite as much from the spiritual life and keen dialectic conversation at home as from the instructions of the seminary. He also served as a Bible class teacher, and in journalistic work in connection with a Cincinnati paper, in which he took an active part as an ardent Abolitionist. His first parish was the Presbyterian
church at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, a small settlement on the Ohio river. Twenty persons, nineteen women and one man, constituted the entire church. He was both sexton and preacher, lighted the lamps, swept the church, rang the bell, and took general charge of the edifice. After a year or two he was called to a Presbyterian church in Indianapolis, the capital of the State. His remarkable gifts as an orator gave him almost from the first a crowded church. His influence was felt throughout the State in intellectual and moral impulses given to members of the Legislature and to public men, who, attracted by his originality, earnestness, practicality and courage, came in great numbers to hear him. His pulpit did not, however, absorb either his thought or his time. He preached throughout the State in itinerant revival labors; lectured fre- quently, generally without compensation, for impecunious charities; and edited weekly the agricultural department of the "Indiana Journal."
After eight years of increasingly suc- cessful ministry in Indiana, Mr Beecher accepted a call to the then newly organ- ized Plymouth Church of Brooklyn, New York, entering upon the duties of his pas- torate October 10, 1847, and remaining until his death, March 8, 1887. The his- tory of these forty years is the history of the theological and polemical progress of this country during that time. There was no theological question in which he did not take an interest, no problem having any recognized bearing on the moral well- being of the country which he did not study, and upon the practical aspects of which he did not express himself, and no moral or political reform in which he did not take an active part. His fertility of thought was amazing. He rarely ex- changed ; he preached twice every Sab- bath, usually to houses crowded to over-
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flowing ; he lectured through the week, so that there is scarcely any city and few towns of any considerable size and any pretension to literary character in the country in which he has not spoken. He also wrote profusely as a contributor of occasional articles, or as an editor, at one time of the New York "Independent," and subsequently of the "Christian Union," which he founded, and of which he was editor-in-chief until within a few years of his death. A career such as his could not be passed without arousing bitter enmi- ties, but of all the numerous assaults upon his memory, only one was sufficiently significant to pass into history, and that has already, for the most part, faded from men's minds, leaving his name unsullied. It is safe to say that no man, unless it be George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, has ever died in America more widely honored, more deeply loved, or more uni- versally regretted.
Mr. Beecher's great work in life was that of a pulpit and platform orator, yet he wrote enough to prove himself master of the pen as well as of the voice. His principal works, apart from his published sermons, are his "Lectures to Young Men," delivered during his Indiana minis- try ; "Yale Lectures on Preaching," deliv- ered on the Henry Ward Beecher founda- tion at Yale Theological Seminary ; "Nor- wood : a Tale of New England Life," a novel, first published in serial form in the New York "Ledger ;" "Star Papers," and "Flowers, Fruits and Farming" (one volume each), made up from occasional contributions to various journals ; and the "Life of Jesus Christ," left unfinished at his death, but subsequently completed by his son, with extracts from sermons. As an orator Mr. Beecher has had no superior, if any equal, in the American pulpit, and probably none in the history of the Christian church. His themes were
extraordinarily varied, everything that concerned the moral wellbeing of men being treated by him as legitimate sub- jects for the pulpit. He had all the quali- ties which art endeavors to cultivate in the orator-a fine physique, rich and full blood currents, that overmastering nerv- ous fire which we call magnetism, a voice equally remarkable for its fervor and flexi- bility-a true organ of speech, with many and varied stops-and a natural gift of mimicry in action, tongue, and facial ex- pression. Training would have made him one of the first actors of dramatic history, yet he was not an actor, for he never simulated the passion he did not feel. Genuineness and simplicity were the foundations upon which he built his ora- torical success, and he never hesitated to disappoint an expectant audience by speaking colloquially, and even tamely, if the passion was not in him.
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