History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 1

Author: Burpee, Charles W. (Charles Winslow), b. 1859
Publication date: 1928
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1390

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III > Part 1

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BOOK 974.62.8939H v.3 c. 1 BURPEE # HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY CONNECTICUT 1633-1928

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HISTORY

Hartford County CONNECTICUT

1633-1928

Volume III Illustrated

CHICAGO-HARTFORD-BOSTON THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1928

1725 V. S

HON. MARCUS H. HOLCOMB

BIOGRAPHICAL

HON. MARCUS HENSEY HOLCOMB

The life of Marcus Hensey Holcomb has touched so many lines, has been so varied in its activity, so fruitful of benefit to his fellows and so far-reaching in its results as to have become an integral part of the history of Connecticut. The value of his service as judge of the superior court and as governor of the commonwealth would alone entitle him to distinction, yet in many other fields his labors have become a resultant force in the upbuilding of the state. He has now reached the eighty-third milestone on life's journey, having been born in New Hartford, Litchfield county, Connecticut, November 28, 1844. He has every reason to be proud of a New England ancestry distinguished for those qualities which have given stability to this section of the country and have made it an influencing factor for progress wherever its representatives have gone. Thomas Holcomb was born in Wales in the year 1601 and was therefore twenty-eight years of age when in 1629 he established his home at Dorchester, Massachusetts, and in 1634 he was made a freeman. Following his. removal to Windsor, Hartford county, Connecticut, he devoted his time to clearing" and tilling his land until he passed away at Poquanock, September 7, 1657. He had taken a very prominent part in the public life of the colony and had represented Windsor and Hartford in the convention which framed the constitution of the colony in 1639. From that time to the present representatives of the name have aided in molding and upholding the organic law of the state and their work has been of far- reaching effect and importance. Carlos Holcomb, the father of the Governor, like his predecessors, was called upon to fill various offices, serving as selectman, assessor and on the board of relief, and such was his known probity and business ability that he was called upon to serve as executor and administrator of many estates-a trust which he discharged in most efficient manner. He married Adah Bushnell, whose splendid womanly characteristics and charm ably supplemented the strength and capability of her husband, and the hospitality of their home was greatly enjoyed by the many friends who crossed their threshold.

Their son, Marcus H. Holcomb, spent his youth in the usual manner of the farm- bred boy, working in the fields through the summer seasons and attending the public schools in the winter months. He was ambitious, however, to enjoy better educational opportunities and for a time was a student in the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, but ill health caused him to abandon his cherished hope of becoming a college student. When he had somewhat recovered his health he took up the profession of teaching, and while thus engaged began the study of law under the direction of Judge Jared B. Foster, a distinguished Connecticut lawyer. In 1871 he successfully passed the required bar examination at Litchfield and the following year removed to Southington, where he entered upon the active practice of his profession. No dreary novitiate awaited him. In a very short time he had gained a large practice that continually increased both in volume and importance, and in the trial of his causes he proved himself capable of crossing swords in forensic combat with the ablest members of the bar of his district. Five years after his admission to practice he was elected probate judge of the Southington district and was also judge of the Southington town court from the time of its organization until he was elected attorney general. The years chronicled his increased activity and usefulness. In 1893 he was elected treasurer of Hartford county, occupying that responsible position for fifteen years. It was natural that one of his knowledge and recognized power should be chosen for legis- lative office and in 1893 he was elected senator from the second district, where he gave thoughtful and earnest consideration to the vital problems which came up for settlement. In 1902 he aided in framing the organic law of the state as a member of

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

its constitutional convention, and in 1905 he was chosen speaker of the house of representatives. At different times he served on many state commissions and in 1907 he was elected attorney-general of Connecticut by a plurality of twenty-one thousand, his incumbency in that position continuing until 1910, when he was appointed a judge of the superior court, remaining upon the bench until, having reached the age limit of seventy years, he was automatically retired in 1914. His days of usefulness, how- ever, were by no means over, for the citizens of Connecticut who had learned to value his service at once called him to the office of governor and his election of November, 1914, was followed by a reelection in 1916 and in 1918. In his terms of office he proved a most wise and loyal executive, giving to the commonwealth a businesslike admin- istration characterized by reform, by progress and improvement. While he was still the incumbent in that position a contemporary writer said of him: "Dignified, impos- ing and courtly, he is the ideal of a chief executive, impressing all with whom he comes in contact as perfectly fitted for the office he holds. Of all the governors Con- necticut has had in recent years no man has been so absolutely independent of the machine in making his selections for office as Governor Holcomb." He always regarded the capability of an appointee rather than his partisanship and the state at large recognized the value of his service in this matter, although strong party politicians may have opposed his course.

While the foregoing indicates the eminence to which Judge Holcomb attained as a lawyer, jurist and political leader, there are still other important chapters in his life history having to do with the benefit and upbuilding of Connecticut. He was chosen to the presidency of the Southington Savings Bank and became identified with the Southington National Bank, the Southington Hardware Company, the Peck, Stow & Wilcox Company and the Aetna Nut Company, representing all of these cor- porations on the directorate and thus having voice in their management and control.

In early manhood, in 1872, Judge Holcomb was married to Miss Sarah Carpenter Bennett, of Hartford, Connecticut, who passed away in 1901. Judge Holcomb has served for many years as chairman of the board of trustees of the First Baptist church of Southington and for three decades was superintendent of its Sunday school. His religious faith, however, is based not so much upon denominationalism as upon the Golden Rule, which he has ever endeavored to embody in his relations with his fellowmen. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, has served as master of Northern Star Lodge, F. & A. M., and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. He has also been identified with other fraternal organizations and is in firm sympathy with the basic principle which recognizes the brotherhood of man. To him came the unusual but merited honor of three times being elected the chief executive of Con- necticut and of serving for many years in the judiciary of the state, and few men have ever left public office with a record so stainless and a reputation so clear. Now in the sunset years of life he may claim as a priceless possession that good name which is rather to be chosen than great riches.

REV. HORACE BUSHNELL

As long as Bushnell Park of Hartford is maintained the Rev. Horace Bushnell will be remembered by the citizens of the capital, for the memory of his upright life and Christian service to mankind is thus perpetuated. He made valuable contributions not only to the literature of the church but also to the enlightenment of his fellowmen upon many current questions of vital interest, and as preacher and teacher he exerted an immeasurable influence. Born in New Preston, Litchfield county, Connecticut, April 14, 1802, his boyhood was largely devoted to work on his father's farm and to assisting in a fulling and carding mill. His naturally keen intellect, however, sought activity in study and he eagerly availed himself of every opportunity to broaden his knowledge. Entering Yale, he was graduated with honor as a member of the class of 1827 and later he took up the profession of teaching at Norwich, Connecticut. Subsequently he became literary editor of the New York Journal of Commerce and in 1829 he returned to Yale to there pursue a course in law and at the same time acted as a college tutor. In 1831, when about to be admitted to the bar, he became interested in religious work through a revival held at the college and changed his life plans by entering the Yale Divinity School. On completing his course he was ordained to the ministry and was

REV. HORACE BUSHNELL

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

unanimously chosen pastor of the North Congregational church in May, 1833. In 1839 an address which he delivered before the Society of Inquiry at Andover The- ological Seminary awakened suspicion as to his orthodoxy and again the subject was raised following the publication of his article "God in Christ" in 1849. Therefore a committee was appointed by the Hartford Central Association, of which he was a member, and before this committee he was called upon to answer a charge of heresy. Among his accusers were leading theologians of that day, but they did not agree as to the nature of the heresy. After a spirited defense by Dr. Bushnell the com- mittee, through its chairman, Dr. Noah Porter, reported that "though there were, in the views presented, variations from the historic formulas of faith, the errors were not fundamental," and with but three dissenting votes this report was accepted. In 1850 and again in 1852 an appeal was made to the Central Association as to Dr. Bushnell's so called heresy, but it refused to render further judgment upon the subject and the agitation gradually ceased. His defense, "Christ in Theology," was published after the trial. Sixty years later his book "Christian Nurture" was used as a class book in the leading theological seminaries of the country.

Dr. Bushnell's pastorate at Hartford covered twenty-six consecutive years and when ill health obliged him to resign in 1859 great sorrow was manifested by his parishioners, who entertained for him the deepest respect and love. His writings included "Christian Nurture" (1847); "God in Christ" (1849); "Christ in Theology" (1851); "Nature and the Supernatural" (1858); "Sermons for the New Life" (1858); "Character of Jesus" (1861); "Work and Play," a collection of addresses (1864); "The Vicarious Sacrifice" (1865); "Moral Uses of Dark Things" (1868); "Woman Suffrage, the Reform Against Nature" (1869); "Sermons on Living Subjects" (1872); and "For- giveness and Law" (1874). In 1842 Dr. Bushnell was called to Wesleyan University, where the D. D. degree was conferred upon him, and from Harvard he received the same degree in 1852, while Yale conferred upon him the LL. D. degree in 1871.

Aside from his church work Dr. Bushnell supported every plan, project and in- fluence which he believed to have uplift value in the lives of his fellowmen. He it was who advocated setting aside the land surrounding the State House in Hartford for a public park, and so persistently and effectively did he urge this that Bushnell Park was at length created and named in his honor. At this time Central Park in New York was the only other public park in the United States. On the 1st of July, 1928, construction work will be begun on the Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall, which will be a gift to the city from his daughter, Mrs. Appleton R. Hillyer, and will be erected at a cost of about one million, five hundred thousand dollars. It is expected that this will be completed and ready for occupancy in the summer of 1929, with a seating capacity of thirty-three hundred. It will certainly be a fitting monument to the mem- ory of one who played such an important part in the material, intellectual, civic and moral progress of Hartford.

On the 13th of September, 1833, Dr. Bushnell married Mary Apthorp, of New Haven, Connecticut. His daughter, Mary Bushnell Cheney, in 1880 published "Life and Letters of Horace Bushnell." He passed away in Hartford, February 17, 1876, and a mural tablet was set up in the church which he had so long and faithfully served. From an article "Hartford in Literature" we quote the following: "Perhaps the man of highest genius in the catalogue of Hartford authors was Horace Bushnell. * *

** His writings, though mainly theological, or rather religious in subject, are often lifted by their imaginative quality and beauty of style into the region of pure literature. His thought has sometimes a resemblance to Emerson's though con- clusions were widely different."

JAMES PARKHILL ANDREWS

After thirty-one years' connection with the Supreme Court of Errors, James Parkhill Andrews resigned his position and is now living in West Hartford, where his public activities and private life have gained him a position of distinction and of honor, high respect and esteem being accorded him by all who know him. Connecticut points to him with pride as one of her native sons, he having been born in East Windsor, October 23, 1854. He is a son of Samuel James and Catherine Augusta (Day) Andrews. The father died October 10, 1906. The mother was a daughter of

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

Thomas Day, who was Reporter of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut from 1805 until 1853.

It was twenty years later that the grandson, who was to become his successor in that office, was graduated from the Hartford High School and entered upon prepa- ration for a professional career by becoming a student in Yale University, which conferred upon him the Bachelor of Arts degree at his graduation with the class of 1877. Attracted to the law, he entered the office of William Hamersly, of Hartford, afterwards a distinguished judge, who directed his reading until he matriculated in the Yale Law School, there winning his LL. B. degree in 1879. He entered at once upon his professional career in Hartford as a partner of F. Walworth Smith, under the firm style of Smith & Andrews, an association that was maintained for about a year and a half, when Mr. Andrews removed to Bristol, Connecticut, and joined Willis A. Briscoe in organizing the firm of Andrews & Briscoe. When a year had elapsed, however, Mr. Andrews returned to Hartford and formed a partnership with Charles H. Briscoe, the father of his late partner. This association was maintained until January, 1894, its dissolution being occasioned by the appointment of Mr. Andrews to the office of reporter of the Supreme Court of Errors, which position he filled for almost a third of a century. Here he manifested the possession of high literary and legal ability in his preparation of analytical statements of the contents of the opinions reported, and the writing of head notes for the State reports. He made so splendid a record in the office that he was offered a position on the Superior Court bench, but for reasons of health preferred to continue his service as reporter of the Supreme Court of Errors, declining to act as judge. He is the author of the Index Digest of Connecticut Reports, 1883; Connecticut Index Digest, 1895; and has been a contributor to the Yale Law Magazine, his writings being of widespread interest. A member of the County, State and American Bar associations, he enjoys in high degree the good will, confidence and respect of his colleagues and contem- poraries. Aside from his professional activities, he is a director of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Mr. Andrews married Miss Julia Lincoln Ray, of Chicago, whose father, Charles H. Ray, was editor of the Chicago Tribune for a number of years, and a friend of President Lincoln. Mr. Andrews has always been an advocate and supporter of republican principles. His interest in the general welfare has been marked by advocacy of all those measures which he deemed of worth to the city and state, and although the professional demands made upon his time and energies were multi- tudinous, he nevertheless served as a trustee of the Connecticut Institution for the Blind and of the Connecticut Junior Republic. During his college days he was a member of Scroll and Key, the famous senior society of Yale, and he belongs to the Hartford Golf, the University and the Musical clubs of Hartford. He was one of the founders and served as president of the University Club, and belongs to the Graduates Club of New Haven.

His religious faith is shown in his connection with the Asylum Hill Congrega- tional Church, and his entire life has been the expression of the highest principles of manhood, of citizenship, and of unfaltering allegiance to those cultural and intel- lectual forces. which make for the uplift and higher development of the individual. His wife is president of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America.

HON. NATHANIEL SHIPMAN

From earliest times representatives of the Shipman family have been prominent in molding the commonwealth and in advancing those interests which have made for its stability and its honored position among the states of the Union. When in 1639 Edward Shipman sailed from Hull, England, his destination was Saybrook, Connec- ticut, where John Winthrop as governor was establishing a very ambitious settlement in behalf of "lords and ladies" under the Warwick patent. The name was originally spelled Shipton, but the present spelling was soon adopted in this country and has since been used. Edward Shipman married Elizabeth Comstock, January 16, 1651; she died in July, 1659, and on July 1, 1663, he married Mary Andrews. He was ad- mitted a freeman in October, 1667, and died September 15, 1697. He was one of the

(Photograph by The Johnstone Studio)

HON. NATHANIEL SHIPMAN

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

three legatees to three thousand acres of land near Hatrford given by the sachem, Uncas, through the terms of his will February 29, 1676.

John Shipman, son of the pioneer, was born in Saybrook, April 5, 1664, and married May 5, 1686, Martha Humphries. Their son, John Shipman (II), was born in Saybrook, January 6, 1687, and died July 7, 1742. The third son of John Shipman and his wife, Elizabeth (Kirtland) Shipman, was Nathaniel Shipman, who was born in Saybrook between 1720 and 1725. About 1750 he removed to Norwich, Connecticut, where he was chosen elder of what is now the Second Congregational Church, Decem- ber 30, 1763. In 1747 he married Ruth Reynolds. His second wife, Elizabeth Leffing- well, whom he married July 18, 1756, was born in Norwich, January 4, 1729, and there died June 8, 1801. They were the parents of Nathaniel Shipman (II), who was born in Norwich, May 17, 1764, and died July 14, 1853. He learned the goldsmith's trade and was a man of prominence in his community, often presiding at important town meetings and other public gatherings. He was chosen a member of the general assembly and served as both probate and county judge. His wife was Abigail Coit, daughter of Judge Benjamin and Mary (Boardman) Coit, whom he married October 11, 1794, and who died July 31, 1800. Mr. Shipman died July 14, 1853.

Their only son was the Rev. Thomas Leffingwell Shipman, born in Norwich, August 28, 1798. He there attended the public schools, in 1818 was graduated from Yale College. Three years later he completed a course in the Andover Theological Seminary and entered upon ministerial work as a missionary in Charleston, South Carolina. After several months there, he resumed his studies at Andover. Later he became pastor of the Congregational Society in Lebanon, Connecticut, and subsequently was called to Brooklyn, New York, and afterward to Brooklyn, Connecticut, to Vernon, Connecticut, and to Hartford. In 1824 he did pioneer missionary work in Huron, Ohio; the following year he was at Norwich, Connecticut, after which he was installed as pastor of the First Church in Southbury, Connecticut. He afterward served for eleven years in Jewett City, when ill health forced him to abandon the active work of the ministry, although at the age of ninety years he still preached effectively. He died in Jewett City, August 29, 1886. Mr. Shipman's first wife, whom he married in Col- chester, Connecticuit, May 3, 1827, was Mary Thompson Deming. She was born October 9, 1803, and died October 14, 1841.

Hon. Nathaniel Shipman (III), only child of this marriage, was born in South- bury, Connecticut, August 22, 1828. He supplemented his early public-school educa- tion by study in the Plainfield Academy at Plainfield, Connecticut, and by a course in Yale as a member of the class of 1848. His law reading was done in the office of Judge Thomas B. Osborne of Fairfield, Connecticut, until October, 1849, when he became a student in the Yale Law School. Following his removal to Hartford he was admitted to the bar and for many years ranked as one of its most distinguished mem- bers. He also became one of the lawmakers of Connecticut, serving in the general assembly in 1857. From 1858 to 1862 he was executive secretary to the great war governor, William A. Buckingham. In 1875 he was appointed judge of the United States district court and in 1892 to the United States circuit of appeals, where he served with distinction until 1902. His fair and impartial rulings and decisions, based upon comprehensve knowledge of the law, gained him high position among jurists. In 1884 Yale conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D.

Judge Shipman on May 25, 1859, in Hartford, married Mary Caroline Robinson, daughter of David Franklin Robinson, former president of the Hartford National Bank, now the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, and of Anne (Seymour) Robinson, daughter of Asa Seymour. Children of this marriage are the following: Rev. Dr. Frank R. Shipman, now resident in New Haven, pastor for many years of the South church in Andover, Massachusetts, later president of the Atlanta Theological Seminary, trustee of Piedmont College, etc .; Arthur Leffingwell Shipman, mentioned elsewhere in this work; Mary Shipman Penrose, wife of Rev. Dr. Stephen B. L. Pen- rose, president of Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, whose work in connec- tion with public matters, especially as national president of the Young Women's Christian Association, is well known; and Henry R. Shipman, professor of history at Princeton University.

Judge Shipman, continuing his interest in public and local affairs of worth to the last, was so much a part of Hartford and of the state that his death in 1906 came as a shock. Amid the activities of his positions he found time to concern himself with all that was best, in cultural, religious and business affairs alike. By kinship and

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

affiliation he was one of a notable coterie of citizens of the town. His counsel was freely sought and dependable, whether as a director or as a purely personal adviser, and his home on Charter Oak Place was a center of social life. He was a director in the Travelers Insurance Company, Aetna Insurance Company, Collins Company, Phoenix National Bank, Wadsworth Atheneum and an officer and director of many benevolent and charitable institutions. In early life he belonged to the Pearl Street Congregational church and later he was a founder and a deacon for many years of the Immanuel Congregational church. Along with his becoming dignity, there was a grace of genial kindliness which appealed not only to his intimates but even to the man who merely passed him on the street. He was of that type of men who made Hartford.

ARTHUR LEFFINGWELL SHIPMAN.

With an inheritance to inspire him and with a will and strength to cherish it, Arthur Leffingwell Shipman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, November 19, 1864. His parents were Hon. Nathaniel and Mary Caroline (Robinson) Shipman. Since 1639 the family name has been recorded in connection with many events that have shaped the history of Connecticut since Edward Shipman sailed from Hull, England, and established his home in Saybrook. Extended reference to the ancestry is found in connection with the sketch of Mr. Shipman's distinguished father on another page of this work.

Having completed the course in the Hartford public high school with the class of 1882, Mr. Shipman entered Yale University, where he received his degree with the class of 1886. Among his attainments there, in addition to high stand, were election to the editorial board of the Yale Literary Magazine, the oldest of college publications, and membership in the senior society of Skull and Bones. He won his LL. B. degree in the Yale Law School in 1888. His initial step in his profession was taken as a law clerk in the office of Seward, DaCosta & Guthrie, well known members of the New York city bar, but after two years spent in that city, during which he gained much valuable experience, he returned to Hartford in 1890 and formed a partnership with the Hon. William F. Henney, the association continuing four years. Then he joined the law firm of Hyde, Gross & Hyde and in 1894 the firm name of Gross, Hyde & Ship- man was assumed. In 1919 he became senior member of the firm of Shipman & Good- win (Charles A.), which includes today others prominent in the younger generation of lawyers. Although advancement at the bar is proverbially slow, almost from the out- set of his career Mr. Shipman has made notable progress, finding ready solution for intricate legal problems and handling all the interests entrusted to his care with such ability and keen discernment that he ranks today with the foremost representatives of the bar. He has also come into financial connection with various business firms and corporations and his counsel has proved to be a most valuable element in their control. He is now a director of the Aetna Insurance Company, Travelers Insurance Company, the Travelers Indemnity Company, the Union Trust Company, the Connecticut River Banking Company, the Collins Company, Capewell Horsenail Company, Sanborn Map Company and several other corporations.

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History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 1

Author: Burpee, Charles W. (Charles Winslow), b. 1859 Publication date: 1928 Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Burpee, Charles W. (Charles Winslow), b. 1859
Publication date: 1928
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1390