USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. II > Part 20
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HERBERT CLAYTON NICKERSON
Herbert Clayton Nickerson, chief engineer of the pumping stations of the New Haven Water Company, and a resident of Last Haven, was born in You Cantan, Connecticut, March 5. 1971. He belongs to one of the all New England families the Jokersons has ing come to America about 1650, at which time settlement was made of the town of Chatham, Massachusetts. Through his grandfather Nickerson, Herbert ( Nicker on 14 related to the family of Harvey f Birch, who tigured as the spy in I Fenimore tomar's work of that name and whose real name was Inoch Crosby Richard to Nickerson, father of Herbert t. Nickerson, was born in the state of New York and in his Ires hood became a resident of Norwalk, Connecticut. He was with a railroad company, in charge of the mechanical department at New Cannan for a number of years, and afterward re moved to New Haven, where he entered into business relations with the New Haven Water Company, taking charge of their Saltonstall station in 1952. He remained in charge there until July, 1916, and is now living retired at the age of seventy three years, enjoying a rest which he has truly earned and richly deserves Ihis wife, who bore the maiden name of Arabella T. Seymour, Is a daughter of Thomas Seymour, of North Wilton, and is now sixty nine years of age. Their family numbered four children, of whom Herbert (. 14 the youngest, the others being: Clara, the wife of W. S. Coker; Jessie, the wife of William G. Newton, superintendent with the firm of Peck Brothers; and Irving, who died Decem- ber 13, 1591, when twenty one years of age
In the acquirement of his education Herbert 1. Nickerson attended the public schools of East Haven and the Giles school, a private school of New Haven. He pursued an engineering course in correspondence schools and after his education was completed he entered the employ of the N. T. Bushnell Company, hardware dealers, as a clerk. He afterward spent a short time in the biryele business in Norwalk and in December, 1591, on the death of his brother, became his successor as assistant engineer at Saltonstall. Ile was afterward transferred to Whitneyville in 1996 and in 1901 was made chief engineer in charge of all pumping stations, in which position he also superintend- all new installa. tion and improvement work in the pumping stations. Ilis position is therefore one of importance and responsibility but his powers are proving adequate to the tasks that de
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volve upon him. He is also the secretary and treasurer of the East Haven Telephone & Electric Company, of which he was one of the organizers in 1899.
On the 25th of October, 1899, Mr. Niekerson was married, in East Haven, to Miss May Etta Forbes, a daughter of Willett B. and Marietta (Bradley) Forbes. They now have one child, Ennice Isabel, who was born April 30, 1909, and is with her parents in an attractive home at No. 369 Main street, in East Haven.
Mr. Nickerson has long taken an active part in public affairs, in fact has figured prom- inently in this way since attaining his majority and has been especially active during the past fifteen years. For many years he has been a member of the East Haven fire department and was chairman of the committee which installed the first auto engine truck in 1917, it being a rebuilt Cadillac combination hose, chemical and ladder truck, which was se- cured at a cost of eleven hundred dollars. In 1911 Mr. Nickerson served as second seleet- man and in 1913 was chosen to represent his town in the state legislature. Endorsement of his first term's service came in his reelection in 1915 and he was made elerk of the committee on eities and boroughs. in which capacity he served through both sessions. In 1915 he introduced a bill in Hartford creating a board of finance for the town of East Haven, putting the finances of the town on a budget basis, and of the board having this work in charge Mr. Niekerson has since been a member. This act also increases the powers of the selectmen and at the same time guards against any abuse of power. For many years Mr. Nickerson has been a member of the Old Stone church, of which he is a deacon, and he was chairman of the committee which secured the funds for the installation of a new town clock in the church tower, replacing the one which had been in position there since 1798. Mr. Nickerson has taken all the degrees of Masonry save the honorary thirty- third degree and he belongs to the Knights Templar Club and to the Quinnipiac Club, in which organizations he is popular, his sterling personal worth, his genial manner, his unfailing courtesy and his progressive spirit combining to win for him the friendship and regard of those with whom he is brought in contact. He has ever been most faithful to all trusts reposed in him and the publie has never had occasion to regret that he has been chosen for high public offices.
JOHN B. CARRINGTON.
The name Carrington is synonymous with modern journalism in New Haven and in this connection has been known through several generations. "To the manner born," John B. Carrington is now president and treasurer of the Carrington Publishing Company, publishers of the Journal-Courier. He follows the traditions and precepts of his ancestors in his chosen life work and at the same time has displayed that spirit of initiative which has kept him in touch with the spirit of advancement as manifest in newspaper publica- tion of the present day.
A native son of New Haven, Mr. Carrington was born in April, 1849, his parents being John B. and Harriet II. (Trowbridge) Carrington. The father's birth occurred in the town of Bethany, a suburb of New Haven, where his parents and his early ancestors had lived for many generations. John B. Carrington, Sr., became identified with the Journal-Courier, advancing to the position of editor, and for many years he occupied a very important and prominent place in connection with journalism in Connecticut. It was he who laid the foundation for the paper as it is today one of the leading sheets in the New England states. His name is also inseparably interwoven with the city's development along many lines of progress and improvement. He was ever the champion of those projects and movements which have been matters of civic virtue and of civic pride and his high ideals in matters of citizenship in large measure took tangible form as the result of his inspiration and his leadership. New Haven therefore lost one of its most helpful and valuable cit- izens when in 1882 he passed away at the age of sixty-nine years. His wife was born in New Haven, a member of the Trowbridge family, one of the best known and most aristocratie in New England. She was carefully reared and her educational training was not merely that which brings knowledge but was of that character which calls forth innate culture and refinement. Her presence and her influence largely directed the social interests of
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the community along the lines of intellectual progress and culture. She passed away in New Haven in 1885, when in the seventieth year of her age. Of the eight children of her family, four of the number passed away in early life.
John B. Carrington, Jr., who was the sixth in order of birth, supplemented his early public school training by study in Russell's Military Academy, where his instruction was of that thorough and practical character that well qualities one for growing responsibilities and duties. Given the choice of entering Yale or taking up a business career on the com- pletion of his preparatory course, he decided upon the latter and entered the field of newspaper publication, which for generations had issued its irresistible call to the fam- ily. He became connected with the journal of which his father was the head. Parental authority, however, was not exercised to secure him an advanced position. In fact, he preferred to start at the bottom and work his way upward, mastering every phase of the business. He therefore began learning typesetting and then assumed in turn other posi- tions calling more and more largely for executive ability and administrative direction. Thus through the steps of an orderly progression he has advanced to the presidency of the Carrington Publishing Company, of which he is also the treasurer. Moreover, he takes an active part in promoting business and financial affairs in the city of his birth and is now the president of the National Savings Bank of New Haven, one of the leading financial institutions of the city, and is also a director of the New Haven Bank. He is interested in many of the more prominent business projects of the city. At one time he was a director and later vice president and a large stockholder in the Fairhaven & Westville Railroad Company before its absorption into other lines, and in his business affairs he has always looked forth with broad vision that has enabled him to understand not only the exigencies of the moment but the opportunities and the possibilities of the future.
In June, 1884, Mr. Carrington was married in Hartford, Connecticut, to Miss Annie Lawton, and they have become parents of four children: Mrs. Burnside Winslow, who is a graduate of the famous Porter school at Farmington. Connecticut, resides in New Haven and has one daughter, Anne. Leila G. is a graduate of Briar Cliff and Anita L. is a graduate of Rosemary. John B., Jr., born in March, 1898, was a student at Westminster Academy in Simsbury, Connecticut, until June, 1917. when he voluntarily joined and now serves in a Vale unit of ambulance drivers in the war in France.
Mr. and Mrs. Carrington hold membership in Center church and in fraternal relations he is a Mason and a Red Man. He is a member of the Country Club, the Lawn Club, the Quinnipiac Club and other social organizations. He usually votes for the best man with- out regard to party affiliation. He has had opoprtunity to enter actively upon political affairs many times, being tendered various offices, but these he has steadfastly declined, preferring that his public service should be done as a private citizen. No one questions his loyalty to the public good or fails to recognize the effectiveness of his service in behalf of those interests which are factors in the material development, the moral advancement and the civic progress of New Haven.
FRANK BENJAMIN BISHOP.
Frank Benjamin Bishop is president of the Guilford Agricultural Society, of which he has been a member for forty-five years. Ile has long been numbered among the pro- gressive agriculturists of Guilford and while engaged in general farming makes a specialty of raising fine seed corn. He was born in North Madison, Connecticut, November 28, 1854, a son of Curtis Benton and Catherine (Coan) Bishop. The father was born on Race Hill in the west side district in North Madison, Connectient, March 18, 1818, and was a son of Gustus and Polly (Walkley) Bishop, who were also natives of North Madison. Gustus Bishop was a son of Abner and Thankful (Buel) Bishop, the former born in North Bristol, Connecticut. The old Bishop homestead is on Summer Hill in North Madison. To Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Benton Bishop were born seven children: William, whose birth occurred Sep- tember 6, 1842, and who follows farming in the Nut Plains district of Guilford, Connecticut; Ella, who was born January 10, 1845, and is the wife of William H. Davis, of Fairhaven, Connecticut; Leonard Randolph, born August 30, 1846; Charles Edward, born April 24,
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1848; Isabel Coan, who was born July 4, 1850, and is the wife of Fred Davis; Clara Walkley, who was born December 23, 1852, and is the wife of Ralph L. Parker; and Frank Benjamin of this review.
The last named acquired his education in the Nut Plains district school of Guilford and in a select school. Reared to the occupation of farming, he took up that pursuit as a life work and owned a fine farm in North Madison, Connecticut, where he carried on the work of tilling the soil from 1876 until 1909. He then sold that property and pur- chased a splendid farm in the eastern part of the town of Guilford, upon which he has since made excellent improvements, erecting new buildings and otherwise adding all of the accessories and conveniences of a model farm of the twentieth century. He is con- ducting general farming along progressive lines and is one of the prominent agriculturists of the eastern part of New Haven county. He is a great admirer of fine oxen and has some of the best teams of oxen in the state. Moreover. he is an expert ox yoke maker. Ile raises splendid farm products and his seed corn is in constant demand. That he keeps in touch with the most progressive methods of agriculture is indicated in the fact that he has been an active member of the Guilford Agricultural Society for forty-five years and has been honored with its vice presidency, while at the present time he is serving as president.
In 1875 Mr. Bishop was united in marriage with Miss Lillian Josephine Norton, at North Madison, Connecticut, where she was born, a daughter of Newell Atwood and Josephine (Hill) Norton, who were natives of North Madison and representatives of one of the old and prominent families of New Haven county. Mrs. Bishop was educated in the Morgan Academy at Clinton, Connecticut, and by her marriage has become the mother of three children: Robert Merton, who was born in North Madison, December 21, 1875, and married Belle Rogerson, of Stratford, Connecticut; Maude Josephine, born in North Madison, November 27. 1878, who is the wife of Fred W. Hull, of Guilford, and they have one child, Reginald; and Charles William, who was born July 27, 1885, and married Frances Soule, of Kent, Connecticut, by whom he has two danghters, Cora and Ada.
In his political views Mr. Bishop has always been a stalwart republican since age con- ferred upon him the right of franchise. He served as tax assessor and as a member of the board of relief of Madison and was selectman of the town of Madison from 1894 until 1899. In 1904 he was elected to represent Madison in the state legislature, serving dur- ing the session of 1905 as a member of the committees on new towns and probate district. He has also been registrar of the town of Guilford and in the discharge of his publie duties has ever been prompt, faithful, accurate and reliable, making a most excellent record as a public official. He belongs to St. Albans Lodge, No. 38, F. & A. M., of Guilford, and both he and his wife are active and helpful members of the Congregational church, Mr. Bishop serving as superintendent of the Sunday school at North Madison for many years. His entire life has been passed in New Haven county, where he has a very wide and favor- able acquaintance. His sterling traits of character are many and in all things he measures up to high standards of manhood and of citizenship.
REV. SYLVANUS P. MARVIN.
Rev. Sylvanus P. Marvin, for nearly forty years the heloved pastor of the Woodbridge Congregational church and a prominent figure in his denomination in Connecticut, was a descendant of an old Connecticut family. He traced his ancestry to Reinold Marvin, who was baptized in 1593 in St. Mary's church, on the Great Bentley Green in England, and came to America in 1638 and settled first at Hartford and later at Farmington, from which place he removed to Lyme, where he spent the greater part of his life. His descendants have been prominent in that locality to the present day.
Dan Marvin (II), one of his great-great-grandsons, married the second daughter of John Mather, a relative of Cotton and Increase Mather, Colonial celebrities, whose second son was Deacon John Marvin, the father of our subject. Deacon John Marvin married Lydia Hull Pratt, daughter of Captain Samuel Pratt, a prominent man of Essex, Connecticut. He was for twenty-five years a teacher in the public schools, and was clerk of the town of Say-
JOHN M. MARVIN
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brook for nearly twenty years, judge of probate, and at one time member of the state legislature, a man honored and beloved for his Christian integrity, his urbanity and his high ideals of life.
Sylvanus P. Marvin, second son of Deacon John, was born in Lyme, March 17, 1822, and at the age of fourteen years removed with the family to Deep River, Connecticut. He early attended Essex Academy, and was graduated from Yale in 1847, and from Yale The- ological Seminary in 1850. In recounting some of his school day associates we note the following: Henry Hadley, uncle of the president of Yale, valedictorian of his elass; Rev. N. A. Hyde, D. D., the nestor of Congregationalism in Indiana and founder of the First Congregational church in Indianapolis, Indiana ; Rev. William T. Reynolds, the beloved pastor of the Congregational church at North Haven for some twenty-five years; Rev. James L. Willard, D. D., for some forty years pastor of the Westville church of New Haven; H. G. Jessup, professor of botany in Dartmouth College: Rev. James B. Cleaveland, who married Miss Elizabeth Jocelyn, the poetess, author of "No Sects in Heaven"; and E. I. Sanford, superior court judge of Connecticut. While connected with the Theological Seminary he taught three years in the celebrated General William H. Russell Military School of New Haven.
In 1851 Mr. Marvin received a call and was ordained and installed pastor of the Congre- gational church at Jamestown, Chautauqua county, New York, where he remained six years, doing much to strengthen the Congregational churches in that section of the state, and re- signed his pastorate much to the regret of the church. After he left Jamestown he received a unanimous call to the First Congregational church of Franklin. Delaware county, New York. He declined the eall, but continued to labor with them without installation for some three years, during which time there was an extensive revival in the church and sixty united with the church at one time. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Delaware Asso- ciation of Congregational Churches in that and the adjoining counties. After leaving Frank- lin he spent between two and three years with the First Congregational church of Torring- ton, Connecticut, which he served during the later years of the Civil war as an emergency charge, the congregation thinking that without a leader (there being no little dissension among them) they could not hold together.
In 1865 Mr. Marvin received a unanimons call and was installed over the Woodbridge Congregational church, of which he was pastor until his death, at which time he was one of the oldest pastors in the state. Many improvements were made in the church property during Mr. Marvin's pastorate. The house of worship is surrounded by beautiful grounds, which were originally some five acres in extent, and on the Sunday preceding the first election that took place after he entered upon the duties of his charge our subject requested that each man plant a tree on the church green before casting his ballot. As a result some ninety trees were brought, and handsome trees now adorn the grounds. which he had already caused to be enclosed with a neat fence. To the church itself a lecture room and ladies' parlor have been added, at a cost of some two thousand dollars, and a pipe organ, the gift of Mrs. Mary Clark Treat, has been put in. Mr. Marvin was a member of the school board and superintendent of schools for some ten or fifteen years, securing a library and a Johnson's Cyclopedia for each distriet.
On May 27, 1851, Mr. Marvin married Miss Sylvina Buell, daughter of Miles and Lucinda (Plum) Buell, of Clinton, Connecticut. She passed away on January 20, 1902. Two sons were born of this union. John Miles is senior partner and general manager of the Globe Silk Works, New Haven. lle married Adella M. Smith, daughter of Isaac T. and Lucretia (Sperry) Smith, of New Haven, and they have one daughter, Grace Edna. He is deacon of the Dwight Place Congregational church of New Haven. A more complete sketch of John M. Marvin is found elsewhere in this work. Edward Reynold, the younger son died when ten years of age.
On May 27, 1901, Mr. and Mrs. Marvin celebrated the golden anniversary of their wedding at the parsonage. There were many guests from the surrounding towns, from New Haven, New York city and Springfield, as well as the parishioners; and many handsome gifts besides between three and four hundred dollars in gold, testified to the love and esteem in which the pastor and his wife were held by his parishioners and other friends. A poetical tribute from one of their old Franklin parishioners, Mrs. Whitney, and also one from Mrs. E. Jocelyn Cleaveland, added to the interest of the occasion, which was also enlivened with
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excellent music by a string orchestra from New Haven. Mr. Marvin had a fine gold-headed cane, presented by the young men of the church on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of his pastorate. There was also a great gathering on his seventy-sixth birth- day, when a beautiful crayon portrait of him, presented by the young ladies' society, was hung in the lecture room of the church, and on numerous other occasions the members of the parish showed high appreciation of his services and a personal esteem, warm and genuine, tor their pastor and his wife.
The family have always adhered to republican ideas. On attaining his majority Mr. Marvin became a whig, and at the birth of the republican party he joined its ranks. He took great interest in gathering historical data, and from time to time delivered interesting papers and published articles on the progress of events in church and state. He published, by request, a memorial sermon delivered before the Redshaw Post of the Grand Army, Ansonia, Connecticut, twenty-fifth anniversary of his settlement in Woodbridge, one hundred and tiftieth anniversary of the church, funeral sermon of Rev. J. L. Willard, D. D., of New Haven, and of Rev. W. T. Reynolds, of North Haven, lecture before the New Haven His- torical Society, published in Volume VI. of their papers. He was widely known and highly respected, not only by the people of his own congregation, but by those of New Haven and the surrounding towns. Rev. Marvin died on November 24, 1904.
FRANK CLARK STONE, D. D. S.
Dr. Frank Clark Stone was a leading and prominent dentist of Orange, living on the Grassy Hill Farm, and when death called him his demise was the occasion of deep and wide- spread regret. He was a representative of one of the old, prominent and honored families of this section of the state. The old home farm has been in possession of the family since the original purchase or allotment in 1777 and the Stones are one of but two families in the Grassy Hill section that have been there since Revolutionary war times. The birth of Dr. Stone occurred on the old farm on the 16th of August, 1860. His father, Frederick Stone, was also born on that farm and was a son of Philemon Stone. The war with England for the independence of the colonies had been in progress for only a year when the Stone farm came into possession of the family and it has been handed down from generation to generation since that time.
Dr. Stone, who was reared on the old homestead, pursued his education in the district schools and in the academy that was on the Green in Orange. He afterward determined upon the practice of dentistry as a life work and with that end in view began studying under the direction of Dr. George Nettleton, a prominent dentist of New Haven. He thus became well qualified for the practical work of the profession and opened an office in New Haven, where he successfully engaged in practice from 1881 until the time of his death in 1897. He drew his patronage from among the old and aristocratic families of his section of the county. His service was always highly satisfactory, for he kept in touch with the most advanced methods, his efforts being the expression of scientific skill. He read broadly and studied deeply and his labors brought splendid results.
At Orange, Connecticut, on the 19th of April, 1882, Dr. Stone was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Marcia Tomlinson, who was born in New Haven, but when thirteen years of age became a resident of Orange, removing there with her parents, Mark and Lucy (Bodge) Tomlinson. Her father was born at Squantuck. Connecticut, where he acquired his education. He afterward became a traveling salesman, selling sewing machines, and later he conducted a corset factory in New Haven. He was a thirty-second degree Mason and while living in New Haven was a member of Hiram Lodge. At a subsequent period, however, he again engaged in the sale of sewing machines and removed to La Salle, Wis- consin, where he conducted an extensive business as manager for the Singer Sewing Ma- chine Company, winning substantial success through the faithful conduct of his business affairs. At length he retired from active business and spent his remaining days in well earned rest in La Salle, there passing away in 1911. His wife was born in Seymour, Con- necticut, in a house which stood on the present site of the New Haven Railroad depot and which at that time was one of the old landmarks of Seymour. Following the death of
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