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 12
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ABRAHAM BRADLEY, last named, was born in Guilford, on the 11th of December, 1731. In 1763, he married Hannah Baldwin, of Litchfield, where he settled and resided for up- wards of thirty years. He subsequently removed to Hanover, (near Wilkesbarre,) Penn., and in his latter years went to re- side with his son Phineas, near Washington City, D. C. He was successively master of a vessel, surveyor of lands, select-
* Leaming Bradley settled in Litchfield, where he died in 1821, aged 85 years-leaving three sons and three daughters. One of his sons, the late Capt. Aaron Bradley, was a member of the Legislature from Litchfield at six sessions. One of his daughters, Anne, married the late Mr. Levi Kilbourn ; another, Lucy, married Mr. Jacob Kilbourn -both of Litchfield:
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man, town treasurer, representative to the legislature, justice of the peace, captain in the militia and in the revolutionary war, judge, town clerk, &c. His wife died in Wilkesbarre, Sept. 18, 1804, aged 67 ; he lived to be about 90 years old.
ABRAHAM and PHINEAS BRADLEY, (sons of Capt. Abraham Bradley,) were both natives of Litchfield-the form- er, born February 21, 1767; the latter, July 17, 1769. As their public career was passed together in the same Depart- ment of the Government, we have deemed it advisable to blend the outlines of their history in a single sketch, The elder brother was educated for the bar, and in early manhood com- menced the practice of his profession in the beautiful valley of the Wyoming, in Pennsylvania-where he married Miss Han- nah Smith, of Pittston, Luzerne county. The younger brother was bred a physician, and, after practicing a short time in Mid- dletown, Ct., he opened a drug store in his native town. From thence he removed to Painted Post, N. Y., and soon after to Wilkesbarre, Pa. He married Miss Hannah Jones, of Litch- field, a lady eminently distinguished for pleasing manners and personal beauty.
When, in 1791, Colonel Pickering was called by Washing- ton to take charge of the Post Office Department, Abraham Bradley, then an Associate Judge of Luzerne county, (where Colonel P. exercised the duties of Frothonotory,) was invited to accompany him to Philadelphia as a confidential clerk. A very unassuming man, yet a lawyer of competent learning, with a clear and discriminating mind, and an industry which knew no relaxation while there was a duty to be performed, a more valuable officer could not have been selected than Judge Bradley. He accepted the invitation, and soon remor- ed with his family to the seat of Government, and entered up- on his new and arduous duties.
But the Post Office, then in extreme infancy, needing addi- tional aid, Dr. Bradley also received an appointment in that
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Department. Abraham was appointed Assistant Postmas . ter General in 1799; and very early after a second Assis- tant Postmaster General was authorized by law. The station was conferred on Dr. Bradley, the former having charge of the accounts, collecting, disbursing, settling with posimasters, &c .; while Phineas took upon himself the more difficult, because more varying and complicated business of arranging pos- routes, forwarding the mails, making and enforcing contracts. The difficulties experienced at every step may be best appreci- ated by men, thorough-going business men, who will for a min- ute give their minds to the establishment of a mail line, say eastwardly, from Philadelphia to Boston: At every ten or twelve miles along the main stem there must be ramifications, diverging lines starting off on each side into the country, up the North river, on to Long Island, through every leading road in Connecticut ; indeed, through all New England. On each of these ramifications innumerable other branches shoot out Some of the mails are daily, some weekly, some once a fort- night : but they must be arranged to depart and meet so as to answer prompt and regular connexion and facilities throughout the whole. "A mail contractor myself for twenty years," says a correspondent of the National Intelligencer, "the propo- als for contracts were ever a puzzle to me-a labyrinth too in- tricate for me to explore, and the most sagacious business man would find the arrangement a tangled skein most difficult of unravelment. Precisely the mind to manage this complicated machinery was that of Dr. Phineas Bradley. From the time he entered the Dapartment he availed himself of the best lights afforded him, and, as if by intution, saw through the whole matter with the clearness, I had almost said, of inspira- tion. With the rapid settlement of the country and the extra- ordinary development of its business and resources, the situa- tion of Dr. Bradley was no sinecure. No servant ever toiled harder ; but his way was cheered by the consciousness (for
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he had a noble ambition) that he was in the path of duty, per- forming highly useful and honorable service to his country, while he was establishing his own reputation and fairly serving his own interest."
Colonel Pickering having been called to the execution of other trusts, a succession of Postmasters General followed :- Habersham from the South, Granger from Connecticut, Meigs and McLean from Ohio, succeeding. Party politics raged then as now, and the "tempestuous sea of liberty," with its rolling waves and rushing storms, shook at times not only the Depart- ment but the Government itself; yet the Bradleys remained at their elevated posts, commanding by their talents, capacity for business, unwearied application, and unspotted integrity, universal confidence. Appointed by Pickering, it need hardly be said they were both Federalists of the old school ; but min- gling the rarest prudence with the most free and unreserved expression of their opinions, they passed the ordeal of all the Administrations for nearly forty years without scath, and, ex- cept in one instance, without serious alarm-a matter alike honorable to themselves and to the Democratic gentlemen who were called to preside over them.
Thus it may be said that the Post Office Department, from infancy to childhood, and from childhood up to vigorous mat- urity, was nursed and educated under the superintendence of Phineas and Abraham Bradley. They laid its foundations in wisdom, they erected the edifice in strength, they adorned it with a beauty approaching perfection. This brief sketch is no fitting place for statistics, or it would be a pleasure to trace up from small beginnings the extension of post routes, the mail stage accommodations, the multiplication of post offices, the steady increase of income and expenditure, from the time they. entered to the period they left the establishment. A fact new to many, and not incurious, may be here stated. In early times, it being deemed necessary to increase the speed of the
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mail on one of the great routes, the Government established a line of stages between Philadelphia and Baltimore-the Gen- eral Post Office owning horses and carriages and hiring dri- vers. The fare through between the two cities, on the Gov- ernment Line, was ten dollars.
On the coming in of Governor Barry, of Kentucky, as Postmaster General, in 1829, whose administration of the De- partment proved so unfortunate, Abraham Bradley was dis- missed, to make room for an influential partizan of the Admin- istration. Dr. Bradley would have been retained, but he des clined to remain. Twenty-five hundred dollars a year, though a strong temptation, could not for a moment shake his resolve to leave the office, if his faithful brother was dismissed, or, as he deemed it, dishonored. The confidence and affection ever existing between these brothers, present a most amiable trait in their characters. For a season the Department was in no lit- tle perplexity ; for, though the papers were all there, and in excellent order, Dr. Bradley's head, his wonderfully retentive memory, were wanting, and seemed indispensable to explain the intricate involutions and connections when a new adver- tisement for mail contracts was to be made out. So remarka- bly clear and tenacious was his memory, thatthere was scarcely a matter pertaining to his office which he could not explain without reference to a paper.
The Bradleys, during their continuance in office, probably wrote more letters than any other two men in the nation. Brief and pertinent, it might be regarded a wonder if one in a thousand ever occupied more than a single page. Their hand writings were peculiar, yet different. If ever seen, they could never be mistaken, for they were unlike any other in existence. Neither of them was a diner out, a giver of parties, an attend- ant upon levees, or seen as courtiers at the houses of the great. Each at home, living in elegant simplicity, their hospitable ta-
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bles were always well set, and their doors were opened with a cordial welcome to their friends and occasional guests.
Abraham Bradley was a book-man. In his hours of leisure he loved study, talked philosophy and metaphysics, was fond of abstruse speculations, and wrote well on every subject on which he chose to employ his pen. As a more active recreation, acriculture was his delight, He had a farm some eight or ten miles from the city, whither he was wont to resort whenever his public duties would permit. Extremely domestic, moder= ate in all his wants and expenditures, he ought to have accu- mulated a fortune. But after the education of a fine family of children, who do honor to his name and memory, he left but a moderate independence .* In 1793, he drew and published a map of the United States, which soon passed to a second edition. In 1814, he commenced the great work of preparing his Map of Post Roads, which was subsequently published, and which contained every mail route and every post office in the United States, with the distances clearly defined. This was .the first work of the kind ever given to the public, and for ac- curacy and minuteness of design, it has never been equalled.
Dr. Bradley, on the other hand, was thoroughly read in the great book of human nature. Man he had studied to advan- tage, and rarely has any one understood his subject more per- fectly. There was no affectation of graceful manner or fash- ionable politeness about him. A bow would have been to him an awkward affair ; but he met you with a cordial shake of the hand -- a cheerful "gocd morning." Perfectly master of the topics of the day, you would seldom meet a more intelligent gentleman, or interesting companion. Tall, a high forehead, dark thin hair, yet so long as to be tied behind, dress plain,
* Among the reasons assigned by the Government paper, for the removal of Abraham Bradley, it was asserted that he had accumula- ted a property of $100,000 ; it was subsequently stated that Dr. Phineas Bradley was the individual meant.
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countenance habitually cheerful ; an excellent physician, nat- urally so, above and beyond the rules of art; though he did not practice for his fee, he was ever attentive and most wel- come at the bedside of his friends when ill. This doubtless in- creased his influence among those with whom he was associa- ted. For many years he resided at " Clover Hill," his country seat, two miles north of the Capitol. "Clover Hill," with its charming embelishments, awakened the muse of his aged fa- ther, and produced a poem of no inconsiderable merit from the pen of that venerable gentleman, who enjoyed in advanced age the gratifying success and unceasing attentions of his sons and their families, emulous to make him happy. Dr. Bradley was for many years a consistent member of the Presbyterian church; In liberality-and his means were ample -- no name stood be- fore his, when religious or charitable objects solicited his sub- scriptions.
The sketch is done ; the mere profiles are taken. " It would require a volume," says the writer already quoted, "to do jus- tice to their biography, every page of which would be a portion of the history of the rise, expansion and success of the Post Office, which contributes so largely to the general intelligence and happiness of the people. The merits and blessings of that great establishment are more especially theirs than any other persons who have yet lived, Their image and superscription is impressed on every leaf of its growth. Marble statues of the two Bradleys ought to be chiselled in the best style of Persico, and placed on the right and left of the two entrances of the noble structure wherein it is accommodated."
Phineas Bradley died in the Spring of 1845-having sur- vied his brother several years. Both left highly respectable families, some of the sons having risen to eminence at the bar and in public stations.
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RICHARD SKINNER:
RICHARD SKINNER, LL. D., (son of General Timothy Skinner,) was born in Litchfield, on the 30th May, 1778. He received his legal education at the Law School of his native town, was admitted to the bar of Litchfield county in 1800, and dur- ing the same year, emigrated to Manchester, Vermont, where he spent the remainder of his days. He immediately took a high stand in his profession, and though surrounded by older and long distinguished competitors, he was in a few years acknowledged as the ablest lawyer in the State. In 1801, at the early age of 23 years, he was appointed State's Attorney for the county of Bennington, where his extraordinary talents, legal accumen, and great forensic powers, were put to severe . though triumphant test. An intellect less vigorous, a purpose less determined, would have quailed before the formidable ar- ray of learning, shrewdness, and experience, which his pecul- iar position rendered it necessary for him to combat. But, conscious of his own abilities, he bore himself with a mild dig- nity and a loftiness of purpose, which secured for him not only the admiration but the good will of his associates at the bar and of the public generally. Young as he was, and thus ear- . ly elevated to a station to which much older men aspired, he did not forget the respect and courtesy due to his seniors. His demeanor in their presence, and towards them, was perfectly unassuming and deferential ; he was more ready to receive instruction, than to instruct,
In 1809, Mr, Skinner was appointed Judge of Probate for Bennington county ; and at the age of thirty-five he was elect-
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ed a member of the American Congress. In fultiling the du- ties of the last office, his labors were as arduous as his position was peculiar. Our nation was in the midst of a war with Great Britain, when Judge Skinner entered the councils of the nation. He, and the State which he represented, had steadily opposed the measures and policy which had originated the war. The contest having been, as he believed, unnecessarily begun, it became an interesting question in ethics, how far he ought to go towards carrying it on -- a question which we do not pro- pose to discuss, much less decide. A step too far in one direc- tion, might justly cause his patriotism to be suspected; while a step too far in an opposite course, might be chargable with inconsistency. It is sufficient to add, that Judge Skinner so far discovered and pursued the " happy medium " as to pass the ordeal without scath.
In 1816, the Legislature appointed him an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court ; and during the following year, he was elevated to the office of Chief Justice of the State of Vermont. In 1818, he was a member of the House of Representatives from Manchester, and was elected Speaker of that body.
In 1820, Judge Skinner was elected to the office of Govern- or of the State-and was re-elected in 1821, and again in 1822. The period of his administration was characterized, not only in his own State but throughout the nation, by unusual quietness. There was a calm on the sea of party politics-a lull of the giant storm which previously had well nigh shipwrecked the Union, and with it the hopes of a world struggling for freedom. Those were genial and prosperous days for that sturdy old commonwealth -- a commonwealth as immovable in her adhe- rence to the principles and spirit of liberty, asher own majestic mountains. Soon after retiring from the chair of the chief ma- gistracy, he was re-elected Chief Justice, a station which he continued to fill with general acceptance until 1829, when he retired from public life.
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Though Governor Skinner thus for a series of years occu- pied the highest civil and judicial stations within the gift of the people of his adopted State, his thoughts and labors were by no means exclusively engaged in objects pertaining to those stations. He felt that the various benevolent and religious societies of the day, had claims upon him which he could not innocently or honorably resist. Hence they ever found in him an earnest co-worker and liberal patron. He was an officer of various local benevolent associations, besides being President of the North-Eastern Branch of the American Education Society, and member of the Board of Trustees of Middlebury College. From the institution last named, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws.
He died at his residence in Manchester, May 23d, 1833, in the 55th year of his age.
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JOSEPH VAILE.
JOSEPH VAILL, (son of Captain Joseph Vaill, who emi- grated from: Southhold, L. I., to Litchfield about 120 years. ago,) was born in Litchfield, July. 14, 1751. His mother, Je- rusha Vaill, was a daughter of Mr. William Peck, of the same place. He continued to reside with his parents, engaged in the labors of the farm, until he had reached the age of twenty-one years.
In 1772, a plan was proposed by Mr. Jeremiah Osborn, who had removed from Litchfield the preceding yearinto the neigh- borhood of Dartmouth College, for several young men to de- fray the expense of a college education for themselves, by tending a saw mill and grist mill, the property of the college, which he had taken to run on shares. A brother of Mr. Os. born had before this become a member of Dartmouth College. The subject of this sketch had long been desirous of a public education, but the way had seemed hedged up with insur- mountable difficulties. Two of his acquaintances, however, concluded to make trial of the plan proposed, and he signified- to his parents his desire to join in the new and arduous enter- prize ; but they raised such strong objections, that he at first felt it to be his duty to abandon the project. His father was considerably advanced in life, and had no other son except an infant ; he had seven daughters mostly dependant ou him .--. These were considerations which weigned heavily upon the mind of the son, but they did not deter him from wishing and hoping for the consummation of his favorate idea. In Septem- ber he received a letter from Mr. Osborn which fixed his de-
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termination to go. His father offered him one half of his" estate if he would remain on the farm ; but he replied that he would rather give up his claims to any part of it than not to go. His friends generally regarded the scheme as wild and visiona- ry, and did all they could to persuade him to stay, but in vain.
His father rendered him such assistance as he was able, and' he set out for the college, in company with three others, Sep- tember 28th, 1772, taking with him his axe and such clothing and books as were deemed most necessary. These four young- men took with them one small horse, on which the youngest and most fccble of their number rode most of the way-the others traveling on foot, with their packs slung across their backs. The distance they were to travel was computed to be one hundred and eighty miles. Mr. Vaill thus speaks of this journey : "I had only about fifteen shillings in money in my pocket to bear my expenses on the journey; and as this prov- ed insufficient, I received some more from one of our company. We traveled on an average about thirty miles a day. I. had never before been twenty miles from home, nor gone on foot a whole day at a tiine. I became excessively weary, and at times was almost ready to lie down in the street. On the third day, as we went from Hartford, on the east side of the Connecticut: River, we reached the Chickopee River in Massachusetts ; and finding the bridge gone, one of our number rode the horse over and ascertained that it was not dangerous as to depth. We then pulled off our stockings and shoes, and waded across, a distance of about ten rods. The water was cold, the stream; rapid, and the bottom covered with sharp and slippery stones. We reached Claremont, in New Hampshire, on Saturday night, and put up over the Sabbath at a small tavern on the beach. of Sugar River. The landlord was an Episcopulian. A meeting was held at his house on the Sabbath. On Monday, October 5th, we reach the College Mills."
Few young men at this day would practice such self-denial
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for the purpose of obtaining an education. The following additional extracts from Mr. Vaill's narrative, will let the reader still further into the nature of the labors and privations of the students of those primitive times. Is it to be wondered at that they made robust and vigorous men !
" The mills were one mile south from the college. They stood on a large brook, and near them was an interval of fif- teen or twenty acres of land, which interval was nearly sur- rounded on one side by a high hill of simicircular form, which extended from north east to south west. This hill was thickly covered with forest trees. The road from the mills to the col- lege, after about sixty rods of level land, passed directly up this hill, thence through a hemlock swamp, nearly half a mile in width, before it reached the plain where the college stood.
"We found Mr. Osborn living alone in a small framed unfin- ished house, which had been built for the man who should tend the college mills. A more solitary and romantic situation can seldom be found. The howling of the wild beasts, and the plaintive notes of the owl, greatly added to the gloominess of the night season, Mr. O, was supplied with some provis- ions and utensils, sufficient for one who lived in his solitary condition. His lodging was a box made of boards, called a bunk, with a ticken filled with pine shavings, and a sufficient covering of Indian blankets. For the first week we strangers took each one a blanket and slept upon the floor ; but in ą short time we furnished ourselves with bunks and straw beds, and utensils sufficient to take our meals in a more decent man- ner. The first four or five weeks we spent in tending the mills, and in clearing away the trees near our house, which furnish- ed a supply of fuel for the winter. One of our company soon gave up the idea of studying, and returned to Connecticut be- fore winter. Three of us now entered on the study of the Lat- in Grammar, and so continued through the winter. Our tutor was a brother of Mr. J. O., and a member of the Sophomore
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Class in college. We gave him his board for his services in teaching us ; and we had no other teacher until we entered college. During the first winter, we studied in our cold house, and used pine kuots to burn for lights, instead of candles, for a part of the time. I lodged with. one of my classmates in the chamber, which we reached by a ladder placed in the en- try. My pillow was a duffed great coat, and our covering nar- row Indian blankets. We did our own cooking and washing until the latter part of March, when a young married couple came from Connecticut and lived in our house, and superin- tended our domestic affairs. Having repaired a small cottage near by, built in part of logs, we removed into that to study and lodge, where he remained during the next summer, suf- eri ng many inconveniences, and undergoing many privations.
" On the return of spring in 1773, as soon as the ice dis- solved, we resumed our sawing. We sawed about sixty thou- sand feet of pine boards, and stuck them up. We also tended the grist mill in our turns, besides burning over several acres of ground, and clearing the same for tillage ; we sowed a part with clover seed for mowing and pasture, and planted yearly about one acre of corn, besides our garden. Our corn-field was never plowed. We employed our hoes in planting the corn, and we dug our field, when the corn was up, with our hoes. The first spring after we commenced our settlement there, the measles broke out in our family, and proved fatal to one of our number. This was an afflictive Providence to us all. In the first summer, we built a new convenient house. One of our number and myself constructed the chimney : and for want of cattle, we backed the stones from several rods dis- tance, The mantle-stone two of us carried on our shoulders nearly a mile ; and the jamb-stones we backed some distance .. By the time we had finished our house, which was in Septem- ber, my health was very much reduced ; and I experienced so severe an attack of dysentery, attended with a burning fever,
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that for several days my life was greatly threatened. But through a merciful Providence, I was at length restored to health. Thus I continued to labor and study for two years, before I, with one of the company, entered college. My hard- ships were excessive, and especially in the spring, when, after studying through the winter, we turned out in the latter part of March, two of us at a lime, and tended the saw mill for about six weeks together. We made it our rule to saw every evening, except Saturday and Sunday evenings, until ten o'clock, and in the meantime some one in his turn tended the grist mill.
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