USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. II > Part 45
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FREDERICK DEWITT SMITH, M. D.
Among the thoroughly skilled practitioners of Guilford is Dr. Frederick Dewitt Smith. one of the younger representatives of the medical profession, who is in close touch with the most modern methods of medical and surgical practice. He was born in New Haven, .July 2, 1885, a son of Edward Dewitt and Josephine (Leete) Smith. The father was born at East Haven, Connecticut, and during the greater part of his life he occupied the position of bookkeeper in the Second National Bank of New Haven, in which city he passed away. His wife was a daughter of Joshua G. Leete, who was born in Guilford, Connecticut, and was a descendant of Governor Leete.
Dr. Frederick Dewitt Smith acquired his education in the graded and high schools of New Haven and prepared for his professional career as a student in the Hahnemann Med-
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ical College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated with the M. D. degree in 1910. He put his theoretical knowledge to the practical test as interne in the Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital and in 1912 he opened an office in Guilford, where he has since remained. "He engages in the general practice of medicine and surgery, and he is health officer at the present time of the town and borough of Guilford. He belongs to the Connecticut State Medical Association, the Connecticut Homeopathie Medical Asso- ciation and the American Medical Association.
On the 30th of October. 1914, Dr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Grace Palmer Deming, of New Haven, who was born in Waterbury, a daughter of Ferdinand and Altha (Miner) Deming, who were natives of Thomaston, Connecticut. Dr. and Mrs. Smith have one child, Dewitt Deming, born in Guilford, January 29, 1916.
In his political views Dr. Smith is a republican and fraternally he is connected with Menuincatue Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Guilford, of which he is past noble grand, and is a Mason in St. Albans Lodge. Ile belongs also to the Episcopal church. He holds to high ideals in relation to communal interests and activity as well as in his profession, and his gen- uine worth and many admirable characteristics have won for him the warm regard of all with whom he has been associated.
HON. FRANK ELBERT SMITH.
Hon. Frank Elbert Smith, who has the well earned reputation of being the leading oyster grower of Connecticut, has been engaged continuously in this line of business since 1871 and there is no phase of the work in its practical or in its scientific interests with which he is not thoroughly familiar. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, July 31, 1854, and is a son of Giles Griswold and Emily (Potter) Smith. The father was born in Haddam, Middlesex county, Connecticut, and was a son of David Smith, a farmer and shoemaker, who for many years resided at Madison, Connecticut, where his death oc- curred. His wife bore the maiden name of Mercy Griswold. The maternal grandfather. William Potter, was a merchant of New Haven and wedded Miss Mary Bills.
Giles Griswold Smith pursued his education in the schools of Middlesex and of New Haven counties and in young manhood took up his abode in the city of New Haven, where he followed the sea in connection with an old sailing fleet engaged in the West India trade. Ile devoted many years to activity of that character and later was employed by the New Haven Rubber Company, after which he went south to locate, but the feeling manifested toward the northern people at that time-just prior to the Civil war-caused him to return to New Haven and again enter into active relations with the New Haven Rubber Company. Subsequently he removed to Madison and became engaged in the fishing industry-at that period a most important one in this section. He afterward pur- chased the fishing pounds at Stony Creek, New Haven county, and took up the business of oyster growing, becoming superintendent of the Stony Creek Oyster Company in 1870. He was associated with that undertaking until 1873, when he severed his connections with the Stony Creek Company and engaged in the fishing business and in oyster growing on his own account. He died at Stony Creek in 1890. exactly twenty years from the date when he took up his abode there. His widow survives and yet lives at Stony Creek.
Frank Elbert Smith, their son and the immediate subject of this biographical review. pursued his education in the schools of New Haven and of Madison. Connecticut, and was engaged with his father in the oyster business as early as 1871, being at that time a youth of seventeen years. He afterward followed oyster growing in the winter seasons, while in the summer months he sailed pleasure yachts which he owned, dividing his time in this manner for fourteen years. He was the owner of the trim yacht Tigress, which had quite a reputation for being one of the fleetest centerboard boats along the Connecticut shore. This boat he sold to a noted Turk, who had commissioned the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to huy for him a good American yacht. The reputation of the Tigress brought a representative of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to see the boat, with which he was so well pleased that the purchase was consummated. The Tigress was then sent to Constantinople on the deck of a ship full of rifles and it was the first centerboard yacht
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to reach Turkey, where it was renamed the Yankee Doodle and where it kept up its reputation in Turkish waters by winning all the races for which it was entered. In 1885 Mr. Smith purchased the controlling interest in the Stony Creek Oyster Company, which was incorporated in 1868, and since that date he has been an active factor in the control of the business. The Stony Creek oysters enjoy a well merited reputation which has made the name a synonym for quality and has caused the output to be eagerly sought by dealers. Mr. Smith ships oyster seed all over the United States and has sent car- loads of Stony Creek oyster seed from his beds to the Pacific coast. The Stony Creek Oyster Company has over one hundred acres planted to oyster beds under water and they are among the largest growers of oysters in Connecticut. There is no man more familiar with this line of business than Mr. Smith, who has been associated therewith for forty-six years and has watched the development of the trade and at the same time has kept in touch with the most progressive and scientific methods of oyster propagation. Among his outside interests is that of a director of the Guilford Savings Bank.
On the 11th of November. 1876, Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Helen Bishop, of Niantic, Connecticut, who was born in Meriden, Connectient, but during her infancy was taken to Stony Creek, where she was reared. She is a daughter of Nathaniel H. and Adeline (Doolittle) Bishop. The father was a native of Meriden. Connecticut, and became a tinsmith of Stony Creek. His wife was born in North Haven, Connecticut, and both have now passed away. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born two daughters: Gertrude E., who is the wife of Herbert E. Hanna. of Norwich, Connecticut, and has one son, Marvin; and Maude H., who is secretary of the Stony Creek Oyster Company and is a graduate of the Normal School of Gymnastics of New Haven.
In polities Mr. Smith is a stalwart republican and for fifteen years he represented the Stony Creek district on the Branford school board. He was appointed by the selectmien of Branford to the board of finance in 1916 and is now acting in that capacity. In 1904 he was elected to represent his district in the house of representatives and served in the ses- sion of 1905, acting on the fisheries and game committee. His religious faith is that of the Congregational church, his membership being with the church of that denomination at Stony Creek, where he has acted as superintendent of the Sunday school for twenty- five years, although he is not serving at the present time. He has been a trustce of the church since 1890 and is now one of its deacons. He belongs to Widows Son Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M., of Branford, and is a charter member of the local organization of the New England Order of Protection at Branford. He belongs to the Connecticut Oyster Grow- ers' Association, of which he is now treasurer, and he is a director and the auditor of the Oyster Growers' & Dealers' Association of North America, which he assisted in organizing in New York city. His interests and his activities are thus broad and varied and have to do with many things which directly bear upon the welfare and progress of the individual and of the community. His business career has been actuated by a spirit of laudable enter- prise and ambition, and his determined purpose and capable management have brought him prominently to the front among the oyster growers of New England.
EDWARD MORRIS LEETE.
The student of history cannot carry his investigations far into the records of Guil- ford without learning of the close and prominent connection which the Lecte family has had with the upbuilding, development and progress of this section of the state. Edward Morris Leete was born in Guilford, August 18, 1858, a son of Edwin Alonzo and Mary Ann (Leete) Leete. The ancestral line is traced back to Governor William Leete, who was born in 1612 and died in 1683. The line comes down through John Leete, Pelatiah Leete. Pelatiah Leete, Sr., who married Lydia Crittenden, Pelatiah Leete (III ). Joel Leete, who married Mollie Crittenden. Captain Alvin Leete, who married Mrs. Rebecca Butler and Edwin A Leete, who was the father of Edward Morris Leete.
Edwin A. Leete was born December 21, 1822, and was married to Ellen Hotchkiss, who was born November 10, 1823, her parents being Eber S. and Fannie (Norton) Hotel- kiss. They became the parents of two children and the mother died July 5, 1854. On
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the 1st of January, 1855, Mr. Leete was again married, his second union being with Mary Ann Leete, who was born September 20, 1827, a daughter of Albert A. and Betsy A. (Par- melee) Leete and a granddaughter of Ambrose Leete. They became the parents of four children: Edward Morris, of this review; Catherine Ward, who was born November 28, 1860, and became the wife of Fred W. Seward; Elizabeth Morris, who was born February 10, 1867; and William Henry, who was born December 3, 1868, in Guilford, and married Caroline Hopkins Barnes. Both Mr. and Mrs. Edwin A. Leete have passed away.
Edward Morris Leete acquired his education in the schools of Guilford, Connecticut, and there learned the furniture business with his father and also mastered the undertak- ing business. He continued in the furniture trade in Guilford until 1912. His wife from 1885 had been dealing in New England antique furniture and the business grew so extensive that in 1912 the E. B. Leete Company was incorporated and the modern furni- ture business of Mr. Leete was discontinued in order that he might concentrate his entire attention upon the antique furniture trade which had been developed.
On the 15th of October, 1879, Mr. Leete was united in marriage to Miss Eva Bishop, of Guilford, Connecticut, a daughter of Elisha Chapman and Charlotte Griffing (Fowler) Bishop. They have become the parents of three children: Frank Chapman, who is a musician of Gnilford; Earl Bishop, who is secretary and treasurer of the E. B. Leete Company. Incorporated, of Guilford; and Charlotte Elizabeth, who is the wife of Gather Hall, a hotel man of Covington, Georgia. The second son wedded Mary Norton, a daughter of Edward and Martha (Bibbens) Norton, who were natives of Guilford. The parents and second son are all interested in the antique furniture business which is carried on under the name of Mrs. Leete as the E. B. Leete Company, for the trade was developed and built up by Mrs. Leete, whose fame as a dealer in colonial and antique furniture is very wide. She is the president of the company and has been dealing in this line of goods for thirty years. She is probably the best authority in New England on colonial furniture and is the largest dealer in and collector of New England antique furniture. She has four old houses in Guilford completely filled with this furniture on display and exhibition and she also has two large storehouses filled with it. Her collection of antique furniture is the largest in New England and many pieces in her possession are more than two hundred and fifty years old. She loaned the antique furniture for and furnished completely the Connecticut House at the Jamestown Exposition at Jamestown, Virginia, and through the Society of Colonial Dames furnished the Connecticut houses at the St. Louis and Chicago fairs. Her patronage is very extensive and gratifying and she has among her patrons many of America's best known families. She has made a very close and discriminating study of the subject and her comprehensive knowledge of furniture, its value, its methods of manufacture and the period at which it was made enables her at all times to speak with authority upon the subject. Moreover, she displays a most enterprising and progressive spirit in the conduct of the business, possessing marked executive ability. She is also one of the organizers and a charter member of the Dorothy Whitfield Historical Society.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Leete are members of the First Congregational church and frater- nally he is connected with St. Albans Lodge, A. F. & A. Ml. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and the Guilford district made him its representative in the state legislature of 1900-1901. Both are widely and favorably known throughout this section of Connecticut and the name of Mrs. Leete, through her business connections, is today widely known throughout the country among those who have interest in antique furniture.
MINOTTE ESTES CHATFIELD.
Minotte Estes Chatfield, president and treasurer of the Chatfield Paper Company, has in many ways been closely associated with the interests and upbuilding of New Haven, where he has resided from his boyhood days. Mr. Chatfield was born March 13. 1859, in Centerville, Connectient, a son of George Wooster and Cornelia (Ford) Chatfield. Oliver Stoddard Chatfield, the grandfather, was a prominent and wealthy citizen of Woodbridge, Connecticut. The Chatfield family in New England dates back to 1639, when George Chat-
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field with two brothers joined the Guilford colony, which founded the town of Guilford, Connecticut. George Chatfield was a planter. Among his descendants was Joel Chatfield, who served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, commanding a Connecticut company as its captain. George W. Chatfield beeamie a merchant of Centerville and was well known in other connections. He belonged to the Masonic fraternity and held membership in the Methodist church. From the time of the Civil war be was a staneh republican. He passed away in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1905 at the age of seventy-five years and his remains were interred in the Evergreen cemetery in New Haven. His wife, a native of Hamden, was a daughter of Elias Ford, a direct descendant of Timothy Ford, who was of English birth and was one of the original settlers of New Haven. Among his descendants was Moses Ford, who was known as Deacon Ford and who served as a sergeant in a Connecticut regiment in the war for independence. Mrs. Cornelia Chatfield is still living at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. She became the mother of three sons: Andrew O., a resident of New Haven; Frank H., living at Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Minotte Estes.
Minotte E. Chatfield received his education in the schools of New Haven. He first attended the Dixwell Avenue school and then became a pupil in Miss Harrison's private school, after which he was for three years a student at the Hopkins grammar school. and later attended the New Haven high school for one and one-half years. He was but a boy of sixteen when he secured a clerkship in the New Haven post office under Nehemiah D. Sperry, who was then postmaster, and remained in connection with the office for seven years, or from May 15, 1875, until April 1, 1882, when he resigned and secured a position with F. S. Bradley & Company, wholesale dealers in hardware and paper. He was placed in the paper department and during his seven years' connection with that house thor- oughly acquainted bimself with every branch of the department, gaining an intimate knowl- edge of the paper trade. With the confidence born of experience he resolved to engage in business on his own account and purchased the paper department of the Bradley interests, thus establishing the Chatfield Paper Company, which he incorporated in 1895, then becom- ing its president and treasurer. Their business is located at Nos. 298-302 State street and as wholesale paper dealers they are among the largest concerns of the kind in New England. Their patronage is drawn largely from New England and portions of New York state. Mr Chatfield's business interests are numerous and important. He is the president of the New Haven Pulp & Board Company, manufacturers of folding box boards, and this is one of the leading industries of the city, the firm regularly employing one hundred and fifty people and handling about eighty tons of the manufactured material daily. Mr. Chat- field is also the president of the New Haven Times-Leader, one of the leading daily papers of this city, having the largest net paid circulation of any New Haven daily. He is also a director of the Yale National Bank.
On the 29th of September, 1580, Mr. Chatfield was married in New Haven, Connecticut, to Miss Stella Stowe Russell. a native of Woodbridge and a daughter of the late Edwin and Mary (Stowe) Russell, the latter a descendant of the old Stowe family, prominent in the early history of Milford, Connecticut. Mrs. Chatfield died January 22, 1916, her re- mains being interred in Evergreen cemetery. To Mr. and Mrs. Chatfield were born three children: Russell Estes, Sterling Russell and Helen Russell. The daughter is a graduate of the Emma Willard School at Troy. New York. Russell Estes Chatfield married Elizabeth Hyde McIntosh, a graduate of Mount Holyoke, class 1911. She is a daughter of Dr Edward F. McIntosh. a prominent physician of New Haven, and by her marriage has become the mother of one son, Minotte MeIntosh Chatfield, born in New Haven. April 11, 1915. Sterling Russell Chatfield. as a member of Company F, Second Regiment, Connecticut National Guard, saw service on the Mexican border and in 1917 was one of the fifty non- commissioned officers selected for the officers' training camp at Plattsburg. New York. Later he was in charge of a squadron in the Aviation Corps at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now in that branch of the service in Europe.
Mr. Chatfield holds membership in the Trinity Methodist church, and he is well known in social organizations, holding membership in the Quinnipiac Club, the New Haven Coun- try Club, the Pine Orchard Club and in the Young Men's Republican Club. Of the latter he is a life member. He is an independent republican in politics. He studies elosely those questions which are to the statesman and the business man of deepest interest and he feels a deep concern for all matters that relate to the welfare and progress of his eity as well
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as of his state and nation. He has served as city councilman and also a> alderman and in 1903 he represented his district in the lower house of the general assembly, while in 1905 he was a member of the state senate. For ten years, from 1897 until 1907, he served on the New Haven free public library board and for many years he was a trustee of the old town fund until the board was abandoned. For a decade he was an active member of the Governor's Foot Guard and is now on the retired list. Mr. Chatfield is a member of David Humphrey Chapter. Sons of the American Revolution, and also a member of the Connecticut Society of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America. He occupies a prominent position in business circles. due entirely to his own efforts. With the exception of a very small patrimony his prosperity is attributable entirely to his own efforts. Watch- ful of opportunities pointing to success, he has never been afraid to venture where favoring opportunity has led the way and each forward step in his career has brought him a broader outlook and greater chances for advancement. Wisely and well he has used these chances and today he is a representative of that class of successful business men who in promot- ing individual success also contribute to the general prosperity.
THE SPERRY FAMILY.
Hon. Nehemiah D. Sperry, former member of congress from the second district of Con- necticut, former secretary of that state, and for twenty-eight years the efficient post- master at New Haven, was a descendant of sturdy New England ancestry. He was born July 10, 1827, in the town of Woodbridge, New Haven county, a son of Enoch and Mary Atlanta (Sperry) Sperry, and is in the line of direct descent from that Richard Sperry who takes a place in history as the courageous friend and defender of the regicides.
The name of Sperry is familiar to those acquainted with the history of New Haven and vicinity, for from almost the very dawn of the colonial period to the present, members of the family has been conspicuous characters in the locality's social and business life. Among them is Enoch Sperry. of Woodbridge, several of whose sons became prominent in the city of New Haven and elsewhere. We refer to Hon. Lucien Wells Sperry, Stiles Denison Sperry, Hon. Nehemiah Day Sperry and Enoch Knight Sperry.
In the town of Woodbridge there is a fertile tract of land in the valley to the west- ward of West Rock, near the "Judge's Cave," so-called because it was for a time the hiding place for the regicides Generals Goffe and Whalley, and Colonel Dixwell, who fled to America after the restoration. This tract early took the name of Sperry's farms-the home of Richard Sperry, a farmer who, though not one of the original planters of New Haven, was an carly settler, his name being of record in the town as early as January 4, 1643. This Richard Sperry was the last friend and protector of the regicides, Goffe and Whalley, at a time when their pursuers from England were trying to ferret them out of their hiding places. There is a family tradition that he came to New Haven as agent for the earl of Warwick. The tenure of Sperry's Farms has continued for upward of two hundred and fifty years, in the persons of his descendants. From Richard Sperry, of Sperry's Farms, are descended the sons of the late Enoch Sperry, who are in the sixth generation, their lineage being through Nathaniel, Nathaniel (2), Simeon and Enoch Sperry.
(II) Nathaniel Sperry, son of Richard, born Angust 13, 1656, married October 2, 1683, Sarah Dickerman, who was born July 25, 1663, daughter of Abraham and Mary (Cooker) Dickerman, and grand-daughter of Thomas Dickerman, of Dorchester, 1636.
(III) Nathaniel Sperry (2), son of Nathaniel, born March 8, 1695, married December 25, 1719, Sarab Wilmot, born February 26, 1695-96, danghter of John Wilmot. Mr. Sperry died September 8, 1751.
(IV) Simeon Sperry, son of Nathaniel (2), born March 16, 1738-39, married Patience Smith. Mr. Sperry lived and died in Woodbridge, his birthplace, though at the time of his birth the territory was the town of New Haven. By occupation he was a small manufacturer and farmer. He held some minor town offices. He was a man of retiring disposition, but he had great decision of character and undoubted integrity, and he enjoyed the confidence of all who knew him.
(V) Enoch Sperry, son of Simeon, born in 1787, married Mary Atlanta Sperry, daughter
HON. NEHEMIAH D. SPERRY
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of Asa and Euniee (Johnson) Sperry. Mr. Sperry was born in Woodbridge and lived on the mill site at the upper end of Sperry's Farms, where were located the gristmill and carding machine. Like his father he, too, was a small manufacturer and farmer and held a few town offices. He possessed a natural mathematical mind and would solve the most difficult problems in his own way without the rules of ordinary arithmetic. His home life was beau- tiful. He always had family devotion and was a sincere Christian, a man of the higheat in- tegrity and one who would go further than most men to assist those in distress or need. He was greatly interested in matters of the day and would discuss political and religious queations with great freedom and intelligence. Outside of business his chief delight was in church affairs. He was a member of the Congregational Church and often moderator of their meetings and he was frequently chosen to settle disputes both in and out of the church, his decisions being seldom questioned.
To the union of Enoch and Mary Atlanta Sperry were born ehildren as follows:
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