USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 1
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Gc 974.6 R2 9m 1202851
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01146 1339
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/representativeme00moor 0
REPRESENTATIVE MEN
OF
CONNECTICUT,
1861-1894.
: : : :
4 974.6 R 29 m
EVERETT, MASS. : MASSACHUSETTS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1894.
REPRESENTATIVE MEN
OF
CONNECTICUT,
1861-1894.
: : : : : :
Sc 974.6 R 29 m
EVERETT, MASS. : MASSACHUSETTS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1894.
Copyright, 1894, BY WILLIAM F. MOORE, EVERETT, MASS.
.
PRESS OF FRANK D. WOODBURY, EVERETT SQUARE.
Goodspeed - $10,00
PREFACE. 1202851
B IOGRAPHY is capable of being one of the most interesting of publications from the fact that human life is the inost fascinating of all subjects, and every well told story of a life is worth reading. In its field inany gifted writers have found congenial soil in which to sow the seeds of truth and righteousness. It is, moreover, a department of literature sure to find many earnest and thoughtful readers. There is a feeling of sympathy, binding together all ranks and classes of men throughout the ages, which has its root in unity of nature, similarity of condition and circumstances, and a comninon destiny, which leads those who are beset with difficulties, surrounded by dangers, or hindered by opposition, to study the records of other lives ; to see if, perchance, they may learn the secret of success, and in turn be able to win their way through all discourage- ments to positions of usefulness, honor and fame.
Thus the boy who finds it so difficult to inaster the task assigned him by his teacher, and thinks that learning is such arduous work, will be encouraged to persevere by the example of Dr. Adamn Clarke, the eminent scholar and commentator who, while a boy, was the butt and jest of his school inates, because of his dullness and inability to comprehend the simplest Latin forms, and yet before his death was the master of all the oriental and classical languages. In like manner the youth of slim purse, and perhaps discouraged at the outlook, as he reads the story of the lives of the self-made inen in the following pages, and finds they attained their present height with no more vantage ground than he possesses, will take courage and strive to reach like success.
Both History and Biography are valuable adjuncts in the history of the race. Each has its province, which, if not absolutely distinct, is still outlined with sufficient precision for practical purposes. History deals with the more general facts, is large in outline, stretches over great space and a long time, records the action of great masses, as states and nations, or the dealing of nation with nation. If it busies itself with individuals, it is only or chiefly in their relation to larger numbers, to communities or commonwealths. It is continuous, unbroken-or if divided into parts, then only for convenience, to abridge the whole into proportions commensurate to the time to be devoted to it, or to expand the account of single peoples by a minuter detail of their corporate action. History is thus comprehensive, general, national. It deals less with individual character than with universal laws, and with actions peculiar to men in their united capacity. But the province of Biography is much humbler, much less comprehensive, yet scarcely less important. It records individual actions, not alone in their relation to the commonwealth, but in their relations to other individuals. In its more complete form it may record, in extenso, the dealings of man with man, or of a man with a commonwealth. The point of view is entirely different in Biography from that of History. In the latter the individual is unimportant, except in his influence on the state and nation. His personal purity and greatness have no existence for History apart from their bearing on public affairs. But in Biography the individual is all important. The facts of his life are the objects of our study, and secondarily the motives which underlie them.
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PREFACE.
The word Biography is modern in its origin, and of comparatively recent introduction. As a "life writing " it is the photograph of the subject. It reveals the circumstances of his birth and education ; lays open the interior forces of development, the conditions of growth and the facts of accomplishment. As its aim is the improvement of the reader, it dwells with special emphasis on whatever was excellent and commendable, and proposes it for imitation as far as it may be legitimate and desirable. It scientifically presents the ancestry of its subjects for brief and interested examination. In no section of the world have family records been preserved with more accuracy and painstaking care than in the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut. It is a matter of public congratulation that such is thic case.
Ralph Waldo Emerson affirmed that "a man is what his mother makes him," and while there is much truth in the words the phrase does not express the whole truth. Past generations, as well as the beloved mother have been concerned in the building of the man. Physical peculiarities and mental tendencies have been transmitted to him by his ancestors. The faults or virtues of progenitors modify the moral responsibility of living descendants. This is often pleaded in extenuation of the wrong of habitual alcoholism. It is equally trine of those in whom no such appetite exists. The noble and godly fathers of the New Eng- land colonies believed that in improving their own intellectual powers, and in elevating their own moral nature by watchful self-discipline, they were not merely benefitting themselves, but that they were improving the mental and moral condition which their children should inherit from them. That this sublime faith was founded in fact, the pages of this volume amply attest.
No claim for historic merit is made for this work, except as it is the history of individuals. The annals of the commonwealth of Connecticut have been compiled by differ- ent persons, but there is still room for a comprehensive history of the whole state, ample as to its proportions and accurate in its details. Few states have been more fertile in deserv- ing men than Connecticut, and to bring the main facts of a portion of these worthy citizens into public view is the real object of this volume. We say a portion, for it is cer- tain that not all the deserving inerit of the state is concentrated within its covers. It is believed that such a record will be of incalculable benefit, not only to the living but to yet others who are to come after, and a part of whose culture will be the study of the history of these very times, in which the men whose biographies are here set forth play no mean part. Is it indulging in a hope utterly vain, if the prediction is made that these biographies may form one of the most acceptable sources of information from which the future historian of Connecticut may draw his material when the present times shall have passed into the domain of history ?
We would take this opportunity to express our high appreciation of the uniform courtesy with which we were received in all parts of the state, after the fact was made evident that a high grade biographical work was to be brought out. From false concep- tions as to the scope of this volume, as well as inistaken notions regarding their own dignity, a few gentlemen have declined to assist in our work, and consequently their names are "conspicuous by their absence " from our list of the "Representative Men of Connecticut."
While full credit has been given for quotations used, we would acknowledge our indebtedness to "An Illustrated Biography of Connecticut," "Biographical Encyclopedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island," and "Biography of Connecticut," for valuable data in the preparation of sketches.
EVERETT, MASS., July 15, 1894.
Buckingham
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF CONNECTICUT.
1861=1894.
B
UCKINGHAM, WILLIAM ALFRED, the famous .war governor of Connecticut, was born May 28, 1804, in the ancient town of Lebanon, Conn.
He was the son of Samuel and Joanna Matson Buckingham, both of whom were remarkable people. Of the first, it has been said "that lie was an enter- prising and thrifty farmer, of cordial and hospitable characteristics, a Christian gentleman of rare good judgment, of careful and exact business habits, reverent, tender-hearted and full of sympathy, and rigid in his ideas of personal liberty." Of the latter it has been said, with equal truth, that "she commanded the love and gratitude of the entire community in which she lived ; that she ministered like an angel to the relief of the sick and dying; that she spent little on herself but much on others : scattering her gifts wherever needed and giving most cheerfully the best at her command." With such a parentage, the son must of necessity have developed an extraordinary manhood.
The memorials of the Buckingham family, from the first of the name who left England in 1637, down to the present, have been preserved in unbroken line, and they afford a splendid illustration of the power of early influences in moulding the character of successive generations. Thomas Buckingham, the first immigrant of the name, came first to Boston, then moved to New Haven, and finally located at Milford, Conn. His son, Rev. Thomas Buckingham, settled in Saybrook, was one of the founders of Yale College, and of the synod that formned the Saybrook platforin. Then follows (3) Daniel, (4) Daniel, Jr., (5) Samuel, (6) Samuel, Jr., who was the father of the Governor. The record shows that for two centuries and a half, his ancestors have been men of fervent piety and rare sagacity in public affairs, of superior intellectual powers, and of prominence in the community of which they were members.
Young Buckingham was born and reared among patriotic associations, as, from the colonial period, Lebanon had stood preeminent for patriotismn. Educated in the public schools of his own and the neighboring village, he was taught to bear his own part in honest labor on his father's farm. A year spent in teaching showed that the art of imparting learning was not to his taste, and he decided to enter upon a mercantile life. At the age of nineteen, he entered the employ of a business firin of Norwich, and from thenceforward he made careful study of the principles of trade. After three years of close application, he determined himself to enter a inercantile career on his own account. Opening a store in Norwich, so thoroughly grounded was he in all the details of his business that the venture was a success froin the start ; in all that goes to make up a Christian business man, he was the model. Not long afterwards, to his mercantile business he added manufacturing, and in 1848 he abandoned the former altogether, to devote his entire time and energies to new and more expanded methods of building up the latter.
In 1849 he was elected mayor of Norwich, and was re-elected the following year. In 1856 he was again chosen to the mayoralty, and was re-elected in 1857. His four years' administration of local affairs was clean and dignified, and he went out of office with the best wishes of the whole community and with a reputation as broad as the state for official probity
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REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and executive ability. With the exception of this position, Mr. Buckingham had held 110 public office prior to 1858. Although his life had been passed in comparative quictude, Hon. O. S. Ferry says of him in his memorial address before thic Senate of the United States, "No man ever lived who more truly, unaffectedly and constantly regarded all his possessions, whether of time, talents, property or influence, as a stewardship from God and humanity. Hc taught little children in the Sunday School ; as deacon of the church, he was its almoner to the poor, and the distributor of the sacred emblems to the membership of its communion, and to the stranger within its gates. He helped to found academies, build up public libraries, provide for fecble churches, promote temperance reform, endow colleges, and to send the light of Christian civilization to the remotest corners of the globe. He did all this so naturally, as it were, that, procecding from him, it seemed nothing extraordinary. Moreover, there were ever flowing from him streams of hidden beneficence, gladdening many hearts and drying the tears in many eyes, whose story will never be told until the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed."
A sketch in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Connecticut says : "The great tidal wave of popular opposition to the further progress of human slavery which disintegrated old political parties and prepared the material for new ones, attracted Mr. Buckingham's warmest sympathies. Having always been a Whig, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise shocked every sensibility of his intellectual and moral nature. It followed, as a matter of course, that he should become an ardent member of the Republican party. In 1856, when the new party for the first time entered the field as the national political organization, his name was placed on the Republican electoral ticket, and added no little to its, success. Being thus prominently brought before the people, and his excellent qualities better appreciated by being better known, in the spring of 1858, he was nominated and elected governor of the commonwealth. By consecutive annual elections he held that exalted and responsible position for a period of eight years. The inost eventful portion of American history since the War of Independence was covered by his tenure of office.
The first two years of his administration were comparatively uneventful ; but in the third, the storin which had been gathering so long burst in all its fury. Two systems of society, each diametrically opposed to the other and coeval with the Republic, came into violent collision. Freedom and slavery were set in battle array, and one must yield the palm to the other. The position of either party scemed right in its own eyes. The election of President Lincoln put a final stop to the extension of slavery and brought the hostile forces to a definite issue. To Governor Buckingham, "secession was rebellion, and an ordinance of secession was a declara- tion of war." Realizing the inevitable, he began to prepare for the conflict in the winter of 1860-61. His preparations were fully justified by the assault on Fort Sumter, and from the fall of that Federal stronghold, he devoted himself, "mind, body and estate, to bring that conflict to a successful issue."
The military and civil history of Connecticut during the war of 1861-65, is almost wholly the story of his administration. Not only is his personal biography a prominent part of the history of Connecticut, but also of the entire United States. In a great measure, the state was unprepared for the dread issue forced upon it; but, to quote again from Senator Ferry, " The Governor anticipated the enactment of laws, assumed responsibility, and pledged his private credit in the purchase of supplies and munitions of war for the troops which from all parts of the state were filling up the rolls of the volunteers. When the Legislature assembled, it passed acts of indemnity, and literally placed the whole resources of the state at his disposal. And thus it continued substantially during the entire war. Never was a trust more faithfully executed. As call after call proceeded from Washington, the Governor was indefatigable in procuring the promptest response." His time, talents, and pecuniary resources were freely
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
given to the completeness of the equipment of the troops, and to the promotion of their personal comfort. No detail was omitted ; neither Bible, nor books, nor suitable tents, nor anything else that could in any way contribute to their welfare or effectiveness. He conscien- tiously visited every regiment and addressed words of counsel and encouragement to its officers.
And throughout the terrible struggle Governor Buckingham's courage and convictions never faltered for a moment. Compromise with citizens in arms against the national govern- ment was deemed impossible. To him national death was implied in the very word negotiation. " Whatever of trial, suffering or privation may be in store for us," he said, "or however long may be the controversy, firm in the faith that our nation will be preserved in its integrity, let us in adversity as well as in prosperity, in darkness as well as in light, give the administration our counsel, our confidence, our support." In the supreme crisis of the nation, a man cast in such a mould was a tower of strength.
In Governor Buckingham's eyes, nothing was too good or too costly for the inen of Connecticut. To one whose duties kept him largely at the front, the Governor said, "You will see a good inany battles and much suffering ; don't let any Connecticut man suffer for want of anything that could be done for him ; if it costs money, draw on ine for it." While yet the grounds were strewn with the dead and wounded, this person telegraphied from Gettys- burg, and quick as the wires could bear it came the response, " Take good care of Connecticut men." During the whole continuance of the war, duty called him often to Washington, and by his firmness, capacity, and devotion to the common cause, he earned the respect of all with whom he came in contact. President Lincoln appreciated him at his eminent worth, and on one occasion said to a gentleman from this state, "From Connecticut ? Do you know what a good governor you have got?" Tliat the citizens of Connecticut realized they had one of the best of chief magistrates is evidenced by the fact that they would not allow him to leave his post while the Rebellion had its existence. Not until the collapse was total, and the national victory fully assured, and the authority of the Republic re-established on a permanent basis, would they permit him to retire to private life and seek the repose he sadly needed.
Even then they would not consent to dispense entirely with his services. In May, 1866, his last term of office as governor expired, and just two years later he was elected a member of the United States Senate. For the six years following, he was associated with that august body of men who constitute the National Senate, and all regarded him with loving reverence and unalloyed respect. An humble Christian, a pure statesman, a sincere patriot, a perfect gentle- man, he was indeed a model to his peers. The faithful representative of his state, and the constant guardian of his country's interests, he was very assiduous in the transaction of business, doing his work in committee and in the Senate with the laborious industry of his earlier prime, and the matured wisdom of his ripening years.
As the session of 1874-75 commenced, it was evident that his active and eventful career was drawing to a close. While the bodily powers were failing, his mind remained clear and unperturbed. Near the end of life he sank into unconsciousness, and thus quietly passed away. Governors, senators, representatives, and other great dignitaries, came to take one last look into the face of the departed. Rich and poor, young and old, inen and women, the brilliant and the beautiful, all came to pay a last tribute to his sterling worth and manifold virtues.
Governor Buckingham was a strong advocate of temperance, and for some time was presi- dent of the American Temperance Union. A sincerely religious man, he attended faithfully to his duties as such. He rendered valuable services to the church in a variety of ways, and served with ability and distinction in many lay capacities. He was a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and was moderator of the First National Congregational Council. Always an earnest friend of education, among his bequests was one
S
REPRESENTATIVE MEN
of $25,000 to the Yale Theological School. He was deeply interested in the effort to establish the Norwich Free Academy, gave his personal efforts to raise a fund for its endowment, and contributed an amount second only to one other. Never remiss in his duty to the poor, he was at all times a generous benefactor to those in affliction.
Making no claim to oratory, he possessed great aptness and readiness for his duties. He had a fund of useful information, a practical knowledge of business, and a ready ability to express his views clearly and forcibly that always commanded the most respectful and undivided attention. "As a member of the Senate committee of commerce, he mastered most fully the important questions that were there presented for discussion and action. As chairman of the committee on Indian affairs, he stood resolutely for justice for this stricken race, who so sadly need friends. His voice and vote were always given with the most conscientious regard for the public interest and the nation's honor."
Connecticut has been prolific of statesmen, of soldiers, of patriots, of great men in the different walks of life; but among them all, there is not one of whom she has more just cause for pride than in William A. Buckingham. Eulogies are regularly pronounced on members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, but seldom indeed are those funeral orations so truthful, so sincere and so heartfelt, as those that were uttered in connection with his obsequies. To quote the closing sentences of a biographical sketch, "Rich in saving common sense, and rich in all the elements and characteristics of symmetrical Christian man- hood, he has left a precious memory to his children and family, to his business associates, to the patriotic soldiers for whom he wisely and judiciously cared, to the church of which he was an adornment, and to the state of which he was one of the strongest and purest leaders. His death recalled to the minds of many survivors, what the English Poet Laureate said in speaking of one of England's good and great men :
O good gray head, which all men knew ; O steady nerve to all occasions true ; O fall'n at length that tower of strength Which stood foursquare the winds that blew."
William A. Buckingham was married Sept. 27, 1830, to Eliza, daughter of Dr. Dwight and Eliza Coit Ripley. Dr. Ripley was a wealthy and prominent citizen, known and respected throughout the whole eastern section of the state. Their children were William Ripley who died in childhood, and Eliza Coit who married William A. Aiken, quartermaster-general on Governor Buckingham's staff.
On the 18th of June, 1884, a beautiful memorial of Governor Buckingham was unveiled in Hartford with appropriate ceremonies. It is in the form of a massive bronze statue of the "war governor " in a sitting position, and is the work of Olin L. Warner, a native of Connecticut. It stands in a conspicuous position in the corridor of the state house, and is the admiration of all visitors.
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
VERILL, ROGER, of Danbury, lieutenant-governor of the state during the period of the War, was born in Salisbury, Litchfield County, August 14, 1809. He was the son of Nathaniel P. and Mary (Whittlesey) Averill, his father and also his grandfather, Samuel Averill, being natives of Washington, Conn., and both of thein followed agricultural pursuits. His mother was the daughter of John Whittlesey of Litchfield County, and all of her six brothers attained social promi- nence and distinction. The father of Governor Averill departed this life in 1856, at the inature age of eighty-six, and his mother died in the same year, only one year younger.
" One of seven children," says the Biographical Encyclopedia of Connecticut, "young Averill's primary education was received in the family circle and at the excellent common schools of his native town. Possessed with a thirst for knowledge, and endowed with unusual energy, he eagerly availed himself of two well-furnished libraries then in existence at Salisbury. The first was established before the Revolutionary War, and was an enduring monument to the sagacity and generosity of its founders. The other was founded by Caleb Binghamn of Boston, and was known as " Bingham's Library for Youth," and was from time to time largely increased by donations of books from individuals, and by money voted by the town to purchase new books as they were needed. It is believed that this was the first youth's library in the state, and perhaps in the country. The future governor's taste for reading was greatly stimu- lated by the use of these volumes. They contributed in no small degree to furnish him with useful information in early life, and made him keenly appreciative of the pleasures and advan- tages of knowledge. After a terin at the academy at Southington, he went to Bethany, Pa., and taught school in that place, and at the same time continued his studies preparatory to entering college. Returning to his home after a year of teaching and study, lie prosecuted his studies under the guidance of his brother, Chester Averill, who was then professor of chemistry and botany in Union College, Schenectady, N. Y. Entering the sophomore class of that institution in 1829, he graduated in 1832 witli the highest honors of the college, and subsequently received his diploma. He again returned to Salisbury and opened a select school, which proved to be the origin of a highly successful academy at that place. Among his pupils were several who have distinguished themselves in social, professional and official life, and whose justly acquired reputation has reflected honor upon the academy and its founders.
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