USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > A biographical history of the county of Litchfield, Connecticut: comprising biographical sketches of distinguished natives and residents of the county; together with complete lists of the judges of the county court, justices of the quorum, county commissioners, judges of probate, sheriffs, senators, &c. from the organization of the county to the present time > Part 10
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In January, 1776, he received a Captain's commission, and at once raised a company for an eight weeks' campaign for the defence of New York, at the expiration of which period the company was disbanded and returned to their homes. At the following May session of the General Assembly, it was deemed advisable, "in consequence of the alarming movements of the ministerial army and navy," to raise two new regiments for the defence of this and other colonies, and subject to join the continental army if so ordered by the Governor: These troops were placed under the command of Colonels Waterbury and Hinman, and Captain Beebe was appointed to the com- mand of one of the companies in Hinman's regiment, and was for some time in active service in New York and New Jersey. At this time, the second lieutenant of his company was James
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Watson, who subsequently rose to an honorable rank as an of- ficer, and, after the war, became a Senator in Congress from the State of New York. Early in November, Captain B. was placed in command of thirty six picked men, raised for the de- fence of Fort Washington near New York. On the 16th of that month, the Fort, after a desperate resistance on the part of its brave defenders, fell into the hands of the British, and all the Americans were either killed or taken prisoners .* The subsequent treatment and sufferings of the prisoners, who were confined in the Sugar House and on board the prison-ships, is perhaps without a parallel in the history of the wars of any civilized nation. Crowded into a narrow space, without air, and for two days without food, contagion and death were the natural consequences. The dysentary, small pox; and other terrible diseases, broke out among them, and very few of the whole number survived the terrible ordeal. December the 27th, an exchange of prisoners took place ; but only eleven of those who survived were able to start for Connecticut -- six of whom died on the way. The remainder of those who were living at that date, being too ill to be removed, where all, with a single exception, (Sergt. Mather,) died within a few days- otust of them with the small pox. Captain Beebe, in consid-
* As these thirty-six men, selected for so fearful an enterprize, were all or nearly all from Litchfield county, this is deemed a fitting place in which to record their names and destiny for the admiration of their posterity: Corporal Sam'l Coe, Jeremiah Weed, Joseph Spencer and John Whiting were killed at the time of the capture ; Sergt. David Hall; Isaac Gibbs, Timothy Stanley, Amos Johnson, Samuel Vaill, Nathan- iel Allen, Gershom Gibbs, Enos Austin, Daniel Smith, David Olm- sted, Jared Stuart, John Lyman, Aaron Stoddard, John Parmely, Joel Taylor, Alex. McNiel, Gideon Wilcoxon, Elijah Loomis, and Phineas Goodwin, died in prison or within a few days of their liberation ; Tim- othy Marsh, Berius Beach, Oliver Marshall, Elisha Brownson, Zebulon Bissell and Remembrance Loomis, died on their way home; Solomon Parmely is supposed to have been drowned from the prison-ship ; Sergeant Cotton Mather, Thomas Mason, Noah Beach, Daniel Bene- dict, James Little and Oliver Woodruff, reached their homes, but two or three of them died soon after. Oliver Woodruff lived until 1847.
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"eration of his office, was allowed the limits of the city, but was. compelled to provide himself with food, lodging, &c., or go without. He was accustomed to visit his men daily, so long as as any remained, but he could do little to alleviate their wretch. ed condition. There then being no British officer of his rank in the hands of the Americans, he was not exchanged with the other prisoners, but was confined within the 'limits' for nearly a year at his own expense. During a part or whole of this period, the celebrated Ethan Allen was held as a prisoner in and near New York, and Captain Beebe often met him on parol and consulted with him on the condition of his men and the means for their relief.
On the 13th of August, 1777, the General Assembly re- solved to raise a regiment by voluntary enlistment, to serve in the northern department, or elsewhere ; and appointed Sam- uel McLellan, Colonel of said regiment ; Noah Phelps, Lieu- tenant-Colonel ; and Bezaleel Beebe, Major. It was further resolved, that the Governor and Council should give all necessa- ry orders for raising and directing the same, during the recess of the Assembly. This regiment, which was to continue in service thirty-one days, was soon raised, and served in Rhode Island and parts adjacent under orders from the Governor and Council. On the 2 1th of September following, the Assembly ordered that a recruiting officer to enlist men for the continental army and to arrest deserters, should be appointed in each of the six brigades of the State. Major Beebe was appointed for the sixth brigade, and Litchfield was designated as his place of rendezvous. Here he remained until he was appointed Lieu- tenant-Colonel, in 1780, when he was stationed with his regi- ment at Horse-Neck. Early in the following year, he receiv- ed a Colonel's commission, and was soon after appointed to the command of all the Connecticut troops raised for the defence of the sea coast. Under this appointment he was assigned the duties and received the emoluments of a Brigadier-General.
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In the autumn of 1781 he retired from the army, and once more returned to his home. But his fellow-citizens still had claims upon his services which they were unwilling to relin- quish: It was a period of great interest and anxiety to the American people. Just emerging in triumph from the War of Revolution, their laws were to be re-modelled and their system of government to be formed and established, and men of wis- dom and experience were needed in the councils of the State and nation. Colonel Beebe was elected a member of the Le- gislature of Connecticut for the October Session, 1781, and he continued to be re-elected at intervals until 1795, when he de- clined being again a candidate for the Ilouse -- a treaty of peace having in the mean time been concluded with Great Britain, and our general and State governments being fully established and in successful operation. He, however, continued to serve his fellow-townsmen in various public employments for several years thereafter, and always to the entire satis- faction of his constituents. Few men ever possessed in a more eminent degree the confidence of those who knew him -confidence not only in his honesty, but in his ability to per- form whatever trusts might be committed to his care. He . died in his native town on the 29th day of May, 1824, aged 83 years -- his wife surviving him only about a year. He had three sons, viz., Ebenezer, (Major U. S. Army, died in the service during the last war with Great Britain,) William, and James, (both of whom have been members of the Senate of Connec- ticut,) and three or four daughters. The Hon. Julius Rock- well, Representative in Congress from Massachusetts, is his grandson.
Colonel Beebe was in person tall, portly and erect, with an open, cheerful, and benevolent countenance, and in all res- pects he was a noble specimen of a man. As a soldier, legis- lator and citizen, he was worthy of imitation for his devoted patriotism and self-denying labors ; as a Christian, he adorn-
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ed the doctrines of the cross by a life of practical godliness. The spirit of missions, and the other great benevolent projects which characterized the church and the world during his lat- ter years, found in him an earnest friend and zealous supporter. Long accustomed to look upon death with the eye of an un- clouded faith, the summons for his final departure found him not only waiting but anxious to go.
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FREDERICK WOLCOTT.
FREDERICK WOLCOTT, a younger brother of the last Governor Wolcott, (a sketch of whose history will be found in this volume,) was born in Litchfield, Nov'r. 2. 1767. His boyhood was spent in his native town, and necessarily partook much of the excitement consequent upon the Revolution. His father, during much of this period, was absent from home- sometimes on military duty, and sometimes in his seat as a member of the continental congress. When, in 1776, the lead- en statue of George the Third was torn by a mob from its po- sition on the Bowling Green in New York, and conveyed to. the care of General Wolcott, Frederick, then a lad of nine years, assisted in casting it into bullets for the use of our army In 1787, he graduated at Yale College, and soon after entered upon the study of the law, but was prevented by ill health from engaging in its practice. His uncommonly sound and mature judgment early attracted the attention of the public, so that without the least solicitation on his part, he was called to the discharge of many important civil trusts before he had at- tained the age of 25 years.
In 1793, Mr. Wolcott was appointed Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and of the Superior Court, and, upon its estab- lishment five years afterwards, Clerk of the Supreme Court. These offices he continued to hold until his resignation in 1836. In 1796, he was appointed Judge of Probate for the District of Litchfield, a station to which, notwithstanding the fluctuations of party, he was annually re-elected by the Legislature for forty-one successive years. In 1802 and in 1803 he was a.
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member of the House of Representatives ; and in 1810 he was chosen by the freemen of the State, a member of the Council, in which body he sat until after the adoption of the Constitution . in 1819. At this date the Council was abolished, and the Sen- ate organized in its stead; and Judge Wolcott wassubsequently for several years elected Senator.
Within the limits of the last brief paragraph, we have passed over almost a life-time in the years of one whose prime was literally spent in the public service ; yet in thus enumerating the various offices of trust and responsibility which he filled so long and so well, we are conscious of having given but a single item of his history. His was a life of unsullied purity and ex- tensive usefulness. Wherever good might be accomplished, whether in the humble walks of life or in the more enlarged sphere of benevolent operations, he was a willing and welcome actor. Hence, all institutions of learning, and societies for- ameliorating the physical and moral condition of mankind, ev- er found in him a warm and efficient friend. He was President of the Litchfield County Foreign Mission and Education Soci- eties, President of the Board of Trustees of the Litchfield Female Academy, Fellow of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Member of the Corporation of Yale College, &c., & c.
No man was less covetous of the world's applause, yet few received more fully the homage and regard of his fellow men, not only in his native State, but wherever he was known. With a commanding personal appearance, and a countenance of singular majesty and benignity, he moved among his compeers like a being of superior mould. His clear and comprehensive mind, well disciplined, and well stored with common sense, combined with a calm and tender conscience, furnishing strong, instinctive and enlightened perceptions of right and wrong, admirably qualified him for an arbiter and judge. He held with equal balance the scales of justice, and when the spotless.
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ermine of the judicial robe was placed upon him, it touched nothing less pure and spotless than itself. All his official du- ties were discharged in the most exemplary manner, and those who required his services and counsel, will long remember the fidelity and urbanity with which they were performed. And although these duties were often arduous and complicated, and his decisions on legal points numerous, it is worthy of honora- ble record that not one of them was reversed by the higher- tribunals.
But the charms of Judge Wolcott's character were most attractively unfolded in the peaceful and retired scenes of pri- vate and social life. In these he most delighted to move, and in these it is most pleasing to contemplate him. Possessing a singularly modest and unassuming deportment, a frank, gener- ous and cordial disposition, he loved the exercise of those kind- ly offices which pertain to the citizen, the neighbor, the friend, the father and the christian. In the performance of the vari- ous duties incident to these relations, he was pre-eminently happy: In these the moral beauty of his character was daily developed in all its loveliness. His elevated standard of duty and honor, and his warm and benevolent spirit, qualified him, for a prudent counsellor and compassionate friend. He re- joiced in relieving the distresses of the widow and the orphan ; and when relief could not be extended to human suffering, he delighted to bind up the broken-hearted and to pour the oil of consolation into the bosom of affliction. Meek and merciful, pure in heart, and a peace-maker, he enjoyed in all their rich. ness the blessings which they ensure, and clothed in this pan- oply of power and love, like his great Master, he "went about doing good." Hence he was appropriately denominated the pa- triarch of the village, a pillar in the church a luminary in the land.
Judge Wolcott died May 28, 1837, leaving several children. His first wife was Betsey Huntington, of Norwich, who died April 2, 1812 ; his 2d, Mrs. Sally W, Cook, died Sept: 14, 1842.
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AUGUSTUS PETTIBONE.
Colonel Giles Pettibone, of Simsbury, in Hartford county, was one of the earliest settlers and most prominent citizens of Norfolk. He was the first Representative of that town to the General Court, the first Judge of Probate for the District, the second Town Treasurer, and one of its earliest Magistrates. After sharing in the labors and triumphs of a pioneer for more than half a century, he died at an advanced age in 1810, greatly lamented by the entire community.
AUGUSTUS PETTIBONE, his son, was born in Norfolk; February 16, 1765. He was admitted to the bar in early man- hood, and in a few years was regarded as one of the shrewdest lawyers in the county. He was elected a Representative to the Legislature at the October Session, 1800, and was re- elected at twenty-eight semi-annual elections-his father, whom he succeeded in the House, having previously been a member of that honorable body at twenty-six sessions ! In 1812, the Legislature appointed him a Justice of the Quorum for the county of Litchfield, and four years after elevated him to the bench of the Common Pleas. Upon the re-organization of the County Courts in 1820, Judge Pettibone was appointed Chief Justice of his native county, and so continued by annual ap- pointments for eleven years.
In 1818, he was a member of the Convention which formed the Constitution of this State ; and in 1830 and '31, he was elected to the Senate from the 17th district. He was also for seventeen years Judge of the Probate Court for the District of Norfolk.
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We have thus briefly noted some of the public employments of one who, for a period of more than forty years, bore a con- spicuous and useful part in the public affairs of Litchfield coun- ty. The simple fact that he was so long, and in such a variety of ways, honored by his fellow citizens, is of itself a sufficient indication of the fact that Augustus Pettibone was not an or- dinary man He was distinguished for the extent of his legal acquirements, as well as for his talents, industry, and strict sense of honor. He was a safe counseller, a just judge, a use- ful legislator, and an exemplary citizen. After a quiet and cheerful old age, he departed this life at his residence in Nor- folk, on the 5th of October, 1847, in the 83d year of his age, leaving a wife but no descendants. The monument erected to his memory in the grave yard of his native town, is one of the finest in the State.
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NATHANIEL SMITH.
The "Smith Family" is an extensive one, the world over ; and he who shall accomplish the herculean task of beginning and completing its genealogy, will be worthy of the thanks of that innumerable and respectable race. Scarcely a town or village can be found, either in Great Britain or America, where the name does not exist ; no haunt of depravity, no lonely back- woods settlement, no office of honor in Church or State, where the Smiths have not been representated.
In another part of this volume, we have traced the genealo- gy of the late Governor Smith, of this State, back to the Rev: Henry Smith, the first minister of Weathersfield. We have not, however, succeeded in obtaining any definite information rela- tive to the remote ancestry of that distinguished branch of the family with which we have now to do. The father of the sub- ject of the brief sketch given below, was a pioneer of that part of Woodbury since incorporated into the town of Roxbury. Ile married a sister of the celebrated Gen. Benjamin Hinman of the Revolution, (a woman of superior mental endowments,) and had three sons who became men of eminence, viz., Na- thaniel-Phineas, (the father of the Hon. Truman Smith, ) long a Magistrate and Representative-and Nathan, formerly of the' U. S. Senate.
NATHANIEL SMITH was born in Roxbury, January 6, 1769. His labors upon the farm in the rugged aud mountain- ous region of his nativity, gave him a robust constitution and sinewy frame ; while his early struggles with; and triumphs
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over, the indigence and hardships consequent upon war and à new country, gradually disciplined his mind for the important positions which he was destined to occupy. Soon after the close of the Revolution, he commenced the study of the law with Judge Reeve of Litchfield, and, after being admitted to the bar, opened an office in Woodbury in 1789. He rose rapidly in his profession, and in public esteem. For keenness of discern- ment, accuracy in investigation, adroitness in argument, and energy of delivery, he had few if any equals in the State. In 1790, he was elected a member of the House of Representa- tives, and was eight times re-elected. In 1795, he was cho- sen a member of the Congress of the United States, and after remaining in that body for four years, he was elected a mem- of the Council of his native State. In 1806, he was promoted to the office of Judge of the Superior Court and Supreme Court of Errors. He remained upon the bench until 1819- having thus been constantly in public life for the period of twenty-nine years.
Though compelled to forego the advantages of a collegiate education, his studies were by no means confined to his pro- fession. He early made respectable progress in the study of the classics, and was a proficient in the abstruse sciences. At the age of thirty-three, the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Yale College, and he was subse- quently elected a Fellow of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.
His success as a lawyer lay in his tact and power, united to a uniform consistency and integrity of purpose which inspired the jury with confidence in him and in his cause. He never resorted to the petty quibblings of the craft, for the purpose of diverting the minds of the jurors from the real points at issue ; but with a steady, systematic, straight forward argument, he presented his cause with luminous perspicuity, and he seldom failed in the accomplishment of his object. As a judge, he
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tempered judgment with mercy, and, wherever the demands. of justice would allow, he delighted to say to the offender, "Go, and sin no more." As a legislator, he was eminently wise, patriotic and sagacious. His mind seemed to comprehend at a glance, the various bearings which any proposed measure might have upon the public weal ; and he possessed the rare. faculty of so vividly presenting the subject to the minds of oth- ers, that they could see it in the same clear light. As a man of mind-of exalted capabilities, and pure aspirations-few of his, generation might be compared with, him. A distinguished Governor of the State, now living, lately said of him, " Connec- ticut never produced a greater intellect that Judge Smith pos- sessed."
He died in Woodbury, March 9, 1822, in the 61st year of his age.
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HORACE HOLLEY.
The present village of Lakeville, in the town of Salisbury, near the northwest corner of the county and of the State, was the birth-place of the subject of this memoir: The town boasts of having given birth to very many persons who have been highly distinguished in our country, and who still adorn its civ- il, military and literary walks. Its iron soil, at once rugged and fertile, seems to have a peculiar adaptation to the produc- tion of vigorous intellect. Glowing patriotism, patient industry, ardent enterprize, and exuberant fancy, have been its common products. These active energies, as exhibited in the character of its sons, are diffused throughout the nation. Its towering mountains, its beautiful lakes, its luxuriant valleys, though de- serted by the genius they inspired and nurtured, still claim their share in those ardent aspirations which sent it forth to an admiring world, and in that affection which, amidst toil and vicissitude, ever directs its warmest impulses to the cherished remembrances and dear scenes of its birth and infancy. Which of its sons, on revisiting his native village, does not direct his eye afar off to the lofty Tachannac, and the pile of stones which his boy-hands assisted to raise as an altar to fame on its summit ? Which of them is not moved by the sight of the pla- cid Wonscopomac, with its woods and lawns and the little skiff upon its 'waveless mirror ?' Which of them is not inspired with holy sentiments, as he sees the dwelling of his father, with its orchard and meadow bathed by the limpid waters? Which of them does not feel his heart glow with religious emotion, while on a Sabbath morning he presses on with the throng of
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neatly dressed youths and, maidens, old men and children, and discovers in the distance,
" The village church among the trees, Where first his lisping prayers were given,
Whose solemn peal still swells the breeze,
Whose taper spire still points to heaven."
LUTHER HOLLEY, (the father of Horace,) was descended in. a direct line from Edmund Halley, a celebrated English philos- opher, born the 29th of October, 1556, in St. Leonard's Parish, Shoreditch, London. His great-grandfather came from Eng. land and settled in Stratford, Connecticut, and afterwards re- moved to Stamford. His grandfather married Waitstill Webb, and continued at Stamford until his children were grown up, when he removed to Sharon, in this county, being one of the. first settlers of that town. His second son, John, whose wife's name was Sarah Lord, was the father of Luther. Luther was a man of unusual energy and enterprize, and rose from com- parative indigence to circumstances of independence and great respectability. He died in 1826.
HORACE HOLLEY, LL. D., was born on the 13th of Feb- ruary, 1781. He early manifested a more than usual degree of mental vivacity, and, even in childhood, gave indications of high and generous qualities. Blessed from birth with a sound ; and healthful frame, no physical infirmaties checked the ex- pansion of his faculties. His senses were perfect ; his percep -. tions were quick and clear, and his memory retentive and ready. Thus qualified to learn, he was naturally fond of trying his . opening powers ; and the acquisition of new ideas, from what- ever source, was to him an enjoyment. He was placed at the common district school in the immediate vicinity of his father's house, when he was but little more than three years old; and the peculiarly rapid progress which he made in the simple stud- ies suited to his age, proved his aptitude to receive instruction, and plainly showed that his lessons were no burden to him.
The first ten years of his life passed in this way, chiefly at.
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school or in such light labor as was suited to his years, and which, intermingled with the customary sports of childhood, served both to develope his corporeal powers, and to give a healthful tone to his mind. With such faculties, and such a disposition to use them, he soon became familiar with the com- mon rudiments of knowledge ; and as nothing farther was to be acquired at a district school, he was permitted to avail him- self of other modes of gratifying his active spirit. His father, in addition to the cultivation of a farm, was pretty extensively engaged in country trade, which gave occasion for the transpor- tation of considerable quantities of produce and merchandise, and to many errands of business from home. New York was then, as now, the ultimate market for that quarter of the coun- try, and intercourse with it, previous to the construction of the Housatonic Railroad, was carried on through the freighting villages on the Hudson river. A drive to Rhinebeck, or Red- hook, or Poughkeepsie, on a smooth road, through a cultivated and pleasant district, with a pair of good horses, and charged with business, was no repulsive employment to a lad of manly temper and enterprizing spirit. It was well adapted to pro- mote many valuable objects, It was calculated to help for- ward a knowledge of men and things-of the modes of bu -. siness, and the relative value of commodities-to throw a youth in a beneficial way upon his own resources, and to aid in giving firmness and tone to character ; and in this kind of occupation, this new school of practical education, was young Holley fre- quently and cheerfully engaged, while yet a boy of twelve or thirteen years of age, the promptitude, accuracy and fidelity with which he discharged his trust, always bringing tokens of parental approbation.
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