A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. II, Part 43

Author: Hill, Everett Gleason, 1867- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 986

USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. II > Part 43

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Rev. Timothy Dwight, D. D., of New Haven, is a son of James and Susan (Breed) Dwight, and a descendant in the eighth generation from John Dwight, the common ancestor, it is believed, of all the Dwights in this country, who with his wife, Hannah, and two sons came from Dedham England to New England in 1634 or 1635, settling first in Water- town Massachusetts of which town he was a proprietor. He early removed to Dedham, where he was a farmer of means and an eminently useful citizen and a Christian. He was selectman for sixteen years. He died Jan. 24, 1660, and his wife, Hannah, passed away Sept. 5, 1656.

From this emigrant settler Dr. Dwight's line is through Captain Timothy, Justice Nathaniel, Col. Timothy, Maj. Timothy, President Timothy and James Dwight.

(II) Captain Timothy Dwight, son of John, born in England, in 1629, came to this coun- try with his father in 1634-5. He was for ten years town clerk, selectman for twenty-five years and a representative of the town in the general court in 1691-2. He was cornet of a troop in his younger years, and afterwards a captain of foot. He went out ten times against the Indians. He married (third) January 9, 1665, Anna Flint, daughter of Rev. Henry, of Braintree, Massachusetts. Captain Dwight died January 31, 1717, and his wife Anna died January 29, 1686.

(III) Justice Nathaniel Dwight, son of Captain Timothy, born November 20, 1666, removed from Dedham to Hatfield, Massachusetts, at first, and afterwards (ahout 1695) to Northampton where he passed the remaining sixteen years of his life. He was a trader and farmer, and a justice of the peace and surveyor of land on a large scale. He married

TIMOTHY DWIGHT, D. D.

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December 9, 1693, Mehitable Partridge, born August 26, 1675, daughter of Col. Samuel Partridge, of Hatfield, Massachusetts and Mehitable Crow. Justice Dwight died November 7, 1711. His wife died at Northampton, October 19, 1756.

(IV) Colonel Timothy Dwight, son of Justice Nathaniel, born October 19, 1694, at Hatfield, Massachusetts, married August 16, 1716, Experience King born April 17, 1693, daughter of Lieut. John King (2), of Northampton and Mehitable Pomeroy, and lived and died in Northampton. He was a lawyer by profession. He was selectman, judge of pro- bate and of the county court of Hampshire county, then including in it also what is now Berkshire, being some of the time its Chief Justice. He was for many years a representa- tive from the town in the legislature. He was colonel of a regiment, and in the old French war was captain of a company. He died April 30, 1771, and his wife passed away December 15, 1763.

(V) Major Timothy Dwight, son of Colonel Timothy, born at Fort Dummer, Vermont, May 17, 1726 was graduated at Yale in 1744, married November 8, 1750, Mary Edwards, born April 4, 1734, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Edwards of Northampton, Massachusetts, and Sarah Pierpont. Major Dwight was graduated from Yale in 1744, and became a merchant of Northampton. He was selectman, 1760-74; town recorder, 1760-75; register of probate and judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 1758-74, succeeding the father in the same position, who resigned it in 1757. He purchased a large body of land at Natchez, Mississippi in 1776, went thither and there died June 10, 1777. His wife died at Northamp- ton, February 28, 1807.

(VI) President Timothy Dwight, son of Major Timothy, born May 14, 1752, at Northampton, Massachusetts, married Mareh 3, 1777, Mary, born April 11, 1754, daughter of Benjamin Woolsey of Dosoris, Long Island, and Esther Isaacs, of Norwalk, Connecticut.

Young Dwight spent one year at Middletown, Connecticut, under Rev. Enoch Hunting- ton, in preparation for college. He was graduated from Yale College at seventeen, and ever afterward supported himself. He taught in the Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven for two years, and was tutor in Yale, 1771-77, and during this time he went thoroughly through, for his own pleasure and profit, the Principtia of Newton; and he also pursued the study of law, with the expectation of making it his chosen profession for life. In 1774 he made an open profession of religion, and turned away his thoughts from the many brilliant inducements offered him to enter upon legal practice and political life.

Mr. Dwight was among the earliest advocates of the independence of the American colonies, being in his whole mental makeup a man of progress and of patriotism, and was swayed by his ideas of what was right and best, instead of by his fears of what might come out of the effort to put them into effect. In June, 1777, he was licensed to preach, and in September following he was appointed a chaplain in the army in General Parsons' brigade, but owing to his father's death he resigned the position in March, 1779, going to Northampton to comfort and aid his mother in her great bereavement, and to provide for the maintenance of the large family cast upon his care, which he did by carrying on the farm, teaching and preaching. He was a member of the legislature of Massachusetts in 1782, and was there urged to accept a nomination for congress, but he refused to be drawn away from the church. In November, 1783, at the age of thirty-one, he entered upon a rural pastorate, accepting a call to Greenfield Hill, Fairfield county, and for twelve succeeding years performed his duties laboriously and happily. He conducted at the same time a large and prosperous coeducational school during the whole period.

From Greenfield Hill Rev. Dwight was called, in 1795, at the age of forty-three, to the presidency of Yale College, as successor to Dr. Ezra Stiles, and for twenty-two years of high intellectual and spiritual activity he filled out the full measure of his capabilities of usefulness.

The published works of President Dwight would fill many volumes, and his unpublished manuscript would fill as many more. He wrote his Conquest of Canaan at nineteen. His pastoral poem, Greeneld Hill (1794), in which was introduced a vivid description of the burning of Fairfield by the British in 1779, was popular. His Theology Explained and Defended in a course of one hundred and seventy-three sermons has gone through a score of editions in this country and at least one hundred abroad, and on it rests his reputation as a theologian. While chaplain in the army he wrote several stirring, patriotic songs, one of which Columbia, became a general favorite. He won great merit as a writer of sacred

Vol. II-16

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lyrics. He versified thirty-three of David's Psalms. No other American poet has yet written so many hymns that the church has gladly accepted as its own, and none have been written by any one in the land which have been greater favorites than some that have come from his pen. His Travels in New England and New York was pronounced by Robert Southey the most important of his works.

Probably President Dwight's chief services to mankind were not so much those of a preacher as of a teacher. For forty-six years continuously, except the one and a little more of his chaplaincy in the army, he spent the united force of his great intellect and heart, girding up such of the youth of his generation, as he could reach with his influence. For twenty-one years of this period, until his death, he abounded, in every way, in the most magnanimous and untiring interest in the duties and privileges of the presidency of Yale. When he assumed control there were but one hundred and ten students; the curriculum was still narrow and pedantic; the freshmen were in bondage to the upper-class-men, and they in turn to the faculty. President Dwight abolished the primary school system and established among the class-men, and between them and the faculty, such rules as are usually observed by gentlemen in social intercourse. He introduced the study of oratory into the curriculum, and himself gave lectures on style and composition. At his death the number of students had increased to three hundred and thirteen.

In his political views President Dwight was a Federalist of the Hamilton school. He received the degree of M. A. in 1772, and on taking it delivered a dissertation on the history and poetry of the Bible, which attracted much attention. He received the degree of S. T. D. from the College of New Jersey in 1787, and that of LL. D. in 1810 from Harvard. He died while president of Yale, January 11, 1817.

Several of the brothers of President Dwight were men of prominence and distinction, notably Theodore Dwight, of Hartford, Conn., and New York, and Dr. Nathaniel, for a time assistant surgeon in the United States army; both born in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1764 and 1770, respectively.

(VII) James Dwight, son of President Timothy, born September 1, 1784, pursued the first two years of the college course at Yale, class of 1804, and went into the hardware business with his brother Timothy, at New Haven, which he afterward carried on at Peters- burg, Va., for ten years or more with success, when he removed to New York and there established the hardware firm of James & George A. Dwight. In later life he returned to the South and spent several years as a merchant in Columbus, Georgia. In 1854 he retired from all further active business to New Haven, Connecticut, where he spent the rest of his life.

He joined the Presbyterian Church in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1824. His faith in God was simple and childlike. He possesed superior business qualities and unfailing energy of character at all times. He was of sanguine temperament, but quite self-distrustful in his religious experiences.

On March 13, 1811, Mr. Dwight was married to Aurelia Darling, born January 11, 1788, daughter of Joseph Darling, M. D., of New Haven, and Aurelia Mills. She died September 17, 1813, and he married August 8, 1815, Susan Breed, born in Norwich, Decem- ber 17, 1785, daughter of John McLaren Breed and Rebecca Walker. She died at her ancestral home in Norwich, August 29, 1851, and Mr. Dwight died at New Haven, March 24. 1863. One child was born to the first marriage, Elizabeth Smith, born July 20, 1812, married August 29, 1833, to Rensselaer Havens, of New York, and died May 30, 1848, without issue. To the second marriage were born the following children: Aurelia, born July 31, 1816, married July 15, 1846, Rev. Richard Hooker and died in New Haven, January 25. 1874, leaving one son, Thomas, born September 3, 1849, in Macon, Georgia, who was graduated at Yale in 1869, and resides in New Haven. On June 29, 1874, he married Sarah A. Bowles, daughter of the late Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, and they have had three children: Aurelia Dwight, who died January 27, 1899, in her twenty-fourth year; Richard, who was graduated from Yale in 1899; and Thomas, of the class of 1903, Yale University. Timothy, born June 20, 1820, at Norwich, died August 11, 1822. John Breed, born December 8, 1821, in Norwich, was graduated from Yale in 1840, and died October 20, 1843. Of James McLaren Breed and Timothy Dwight, sketches follow:

(VIII) James McLaren Breed Dwight, son of James, born at Norwich, Connecticut August 11, 1825, was graduated from Yale in the class of 1846. He was a tutor in that

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institution from 1849 to 1853, and from 1854 to 1856 was a student of theology at Andover, Massachusetts, and at New Haven, Connecticut. He was graduated from Colum- bia College Law School in 1861, and was identified with that institution as an instructor in law from 1861 to 1866, and also was engaged in the practice of the law in New York city. For a number of years following 1869 Mr. Dwight and wife were traveling abroad. Their place of residence was later changed to New Haven.

On June 6, 1866, Mr. Dwight was married at Philadelphia to Cora Charlesina Tal- madge, daughter of Major Charles B. Talmadge, U. S. A., and Margaret Kennedy, and one child, James McLaren, was born to them May 4, 1872, in London, England, and died on the same date.

Rev. Timothy Dwight, D. D., LL. D., of New Haven, and who in 1899 resigned from the presidency of Yale University, was born Nov. 16, 1828, in Norwich, Connecticut. He was graduated from Yale College in 1849, and from 1851 to 1855 was a tutor in that institution. He studied theology at the New Haven Theological Seminary from 1850 to 1853, then spent two years (1856-58) in Germany at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. He has since until his retirement been connected with the affairs of Yale University. Since 1858 he has been professor of sacred literature and N. T. Greek in Yale Theological Seminary. He was for some years one of the editors of the New Englander, and in 1870-71 he published a series of articles in it on "The True Ideal of an American University," which was afterward issued separately, and attracted much attention. He has published a translation of Godet's Commentary on John's Gospel, with additional notes, and has edited with additional notes several volumes of Meyer's Comments on the New Testament; he has also published a volume of sermons entitled Thoughts of and for the Inner Life. also various articles on educational and other subjects. He was a member of the Committee for the Revision of the Bible from 1872 till its completion in 1885. During the foregoing years, he also preached frequently and with great acceptance in the college pulpit. as well as elsewhere in the city. In 1886 Professor Dwight was chosen the successor of Noah Porter as president of Yale, and was formally installed in the office July 1st, delivering an inaugural address which was published with an account of the ceremonies at his induction in pamphlet form. In 1903 he published "Memories of Yale Life and Men." At celebration of the Bicentennial of Yale in 1901, Dr. Dwight was president of the general bi-centennial committee. He died on May 26, 1916.

On December 31, 1866, Timothy Dwight was married to Jane Wakeman Skinner, daughter of Roger Sherman Skinner, of New Haven, and Mary Lockwood De Forest, and their children were: Helen Rood and Winthrop Edwards, of whom the latter graduated at Yale University in 1893.

ROGER B. VOSBURGH.

Roger B. Vosburgh, who is engaged in the storage, trueking and transfer business in West Haven, was born in Ancram, Columbia county, New York, October 15, 1862, a son of Homer G. and Maria (Roger) Vosburgh, natives respectively of New York and Massa- chusetts. The father devoted his life to farming, in which connection he met with a grat- ifying measure of success.

Our subject's education was acquired in the public schools and as a boy and youth he also assisted his father with the farm work, but when twenty-one years old he began learning telegraphy and for a number of years was telegraph operator and station agent for the New York Central Railroad, working at a number of places in New York. In 1887 he came to West Haven as agent for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- road and for twenty-seven years was their representative here. During that time he started trucking and for the past three years he has devoted his entire time and atten- tion to his individual business interests and has built up a large patronage along the lines of storage, trucking and transfer. He has six large trucks and nine teams, and gives employment to about twenty men. He does all kinds of hauling and has the only busi- ness of that kind in West Haven. He is also a stockholder in the Orange Bank & Trust Company.

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Mr. Vosburgh has confined his political activity to the exercise of his right of fran- chise and his interest in the material and civic advancement of his community is indicated by his membership in the chamber of commerce. In religious faith he is a Methodist and the work of the local church profits largely from his material and moral support.

Mr. Vosburgh was united in marriage to Miss Clarinda Kesselback, a daughter of Grover Kesselback, who is a schoolteacher. To Mr. and Mrs. Vosburgh were born two daughters: Ella, who is the wife of Myron Alling, a resident of Jewett City, Connecticut, and the mother of four children; and Ala Grace, who died October 13, 1909, at the age of four- teen years.

EDWARD FRANCIS MCINTOSH, M. D.

Qualified for practice by a thorough training in this country and abroad, Dr. MeIntosh has always been a close and discriminating student in his profession. He has also manifested an interest in every measure which aimed to bring a clearer understanding of the laws of health to his fellowmen. He obtained his earlier education in the grammar and high schools of Dorchester and Boston. supplemented with two years of private instruction and study, later entering the medical department of Yale University, where he won his M. D. in the class of 1897. His course of preparation was continued in post graduate studies at Yale and at the Augusta Hospital in Berlin, Germany, under Professors Ewald. Kutner and Jacobson. Since 1902 he has specialized in diseases of the stomach and for several years was instructor in gastro-enterology in the Yale Medical College. He is a member of the State, County and New Haven Medical Societies, the American Medical Association and is a charter member of the New Haven Alumni Association of Yale.

Dr. McIntosh was born in Dorchester, now a part of Boston, Massachusetts, March 2, 1860. He is a son of William Francis MeIntosh, and a great-grandson of James McIntosh, who came from Scotland to this country a few years before the Revolutionary war. Dr. MeIntosh's mother's maiden name was Betsy Avis Bowen, and her mother was Betty Hopkins, born at Truro, Cape Cod, in 1798, a direct descendant of Stephens Hopkins, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. In collateral lines the family is connected with the Hale, Briggs, Tileston and other well know New England families.

On the 27th of November, 1883, at Southbridge, Massachusetts, Dr. MeIntosh married Harriet Lucretia, daughter of John and Sarah (Mossman) Hyde, formerly of Winchendon, Massachusetts. Dr. and Mrs. MeIntosh have three daughters: Ruth, the wife of Clarence H. Cogswell; Elizabeth Hyde, the wife of Russell E. Chatfield; and Etta Monroe, wife of Rufus F. Blount.

In politics Dr. McIntosh is a progressive and was the first president of the Progres- sive Club of New Haven. He was treasurer of the New Haven Civic Society for the first two years after organizing. He is a Congregationalist and a member of the United church of New Haven. His activities have always been broad and varied, touching the general interests of society at many points.

FREDERICK NOBLE BLATCHLEY.

Frederick Noble Blatchley, actively identified with farming at Guilford, where he was born February 7, 1873, is a son of Joel Hall and Mary Hall (Davis) Blatchley. The an- cestral line is traced back to Thomas Blatchley, who is supposed to have come from Wales and who landed at Boston in 1635. He removed to Hartford in 1640, became a resident of New Haven in 1643, of Branford in 1645 and of Guilford in 1666. Subsequently he established his home in Boston, where he followed merchantile pursuits until his death in 1674. Hle married Susanna Ball and their second child was Moses Blatchley, who was born March 29, 1650, in Branford, and removed to East Guilford, now Madison, where he died October 15, 1693. He married Susannah Bishop, who was born in 1657 and died in October, 1729. They had eight children, including Joshua Blatchley, who was born

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April 14, 1692, in East Guilford, and there engaged in farming until his death on the 31st of March, 1742. He was married November 22, 1721, to Mary Field, who was born November 15, 1699, and died February 9, 1793. The younger of their two children was Joshua Blatchley, who was born February 15, 1724, in East Guilford, now North Madison, where he devoted his life to farming, passing away September 2, 1816. He was married October 11, 1752, to Abigail Dudley, who was born December 22, 1735, and died April 18, 1820. They had seven children, including Joel Blatchley, who was born July 12, 1770. in the town of East Guilford, now North Madison, where he carried on farming and was also proprietor of a hotel for many years. His last days were spent in Durham, Middlesex county, where he died July 11, 1853. He was married four times, his first wife being Ruth Loper, born September 20, 1774, in North Guilford, who died April 7, 1823. They were married March 9, 1794, and had ten children, including William Blatchley, who was born April 21, 1795, in North Madison. He engaged in teaching school through thirteen winter terms and in the summer followed farm work. He also engaged to some extent in the lumber business. He was a prominent democrat and twice represented his district in the state legislature. In 1817 he married Minerva Hall, who was born in Wallingford in 1800 and died October 16, 1863, while his death occurred in North Madison, July 10, 1868. They became parents of nine children, including Joel Hall Blatchley, who was born May 7, 1837. and became the father of Frederick Noble Blatchley of this review. Joel H. Blatch- ley spent his youthful days on the old homestead and began his education in the district schools of North Madison, while later he attended a select school. On reaching man's estate he went west and purchased a tract of land in Illinois but after a short time returned to North Madison, where he began farming. He also operated a sawmill, getting out rail- road timber, and continued in that business for thirteen years. He then again sold out and went west, settling in MePherson county, Kansas, where he secured a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres. His title to that claim bears the signature of President Grant. On again returning to Connecticut he settled in Guilford, where he car- ried on general farming, stock raising and the lumber business, making for himself a creditable position in agricultural and commercial circles. He also took an active and helpful part in public affairs and gave his political support in early life to the democratic party but afterward became a stanch republican. He was married in Guilford, December 27, 1866, to Mary Hall Davis, who was born March 13, 1839, and they became the par- ents of three children: William Hall, Samuel Davis and Frederick Noble.

The last named acquired his education in the Nut Plains district of Guilford and took up the occupation of farming and road contracting in the borough of Guilford. He also engaged with his brother, William ITall Blatchley, in the timber business and in 1909 he bought a farm on the Boston post road, one mile east of Guilford, which comprises fifty- five acres. In 1910 he removed to the farm and erected a new dwelling and substantial barns, also built a silo and is now successfully operating his land, being numbered among the active, enterprising and representative agriculturists of that section of the county. He makes a specialty of raising registered pure bred Hereford cattle, in which he has been very successful, and today he is the owner of one of the best herds of Hereford cattle in Connecticut. He also engages in teaming and contract work in the town of Guilford and adds materially to his income in that connection.

On the 19th of June, 1898, Mr. Blatchley was united in marriage to Miss Grace Eloise Morse, of Guilford. Connecticut, who was born in the old historie Comfort Star house at Guilford, a daughter of Augustus and Clara (Smith) Morse. Her father was born in Durham, Connecticut, and was a carpenter and buikler of Guilford, where he now lives. His wife was born in Madison and is also living. Augustus Morse was a son of Joseph Morse and he in turn a son of Alpha Morse, all of whom were natives of Durham, Con- nectient. The wife of Joseph Morse was Elizabeth Hill, a descendant of John Hill, one of the original planters of Guilford. Augustus William Morse. the father of Mrs. Blatchley. is a veteran of the Civil war. He enlisted October 5, 1861, at Hartford, Connecticut, joining the boys in blue of Company K, Eighth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, with which he did duty as wagon master. He was honorably discharged December 23, 1863, and reenlisted as a member of Company E, Eighth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, from which he was discharged December 12, 1865, at City Point, Virginia, the war having sev- eral months before been brought to a successful termination. He participated in various

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important engagements, including the battles at Roanoke Island, South Mountain, Antietam, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and Fort Huger, where he was wounded.

In religious faith Mr. and Mrs. Blatchley are Congregationalists, holding member- ship in the First church at Guilford. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he has served as burgess of the borough of Guilford. He cooperates in all those activities which promise benefit to the community and his aid and influence are always on the side of those interests which are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. As a business man he is very progressive and he may well be proud of what he has accom- plished in the way of raising Hereford cattle. He has done much to improve the grade of stock handled in this section of the county and is today the owner of one of the finest Hereford herds to be found in this section of Connecticut. It is characteristic of him that whatever he undertakes he accomplishes, never stopping short of the snecessful fulfil- ment of his purpose.

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A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. II, Part 43

Author: Hill, Everett Gleason, 1867- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1918 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 986

Author: Hill, Everett Gleason, 1867- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 986