USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume II > Part 39
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Jean Baptiste Martin, the present head of the American plant of the J. B. Martin Company, In- corporated, and son of Andre and Margaret (Arbe- lot) Martin, was born in St. Germain en Laye, France, on May 29, 1890. He received his early education in the public schools of the city of Paris, continuing through the high school there. He graduated from the German Technical School, at Ronigliche Webeshule, at Crefeld, in Rhineland, Germany. Returning to his native land, he enlisted in the French army, as cavalryman, and completed the two years of service in 1912. Mr. Martin came to America in that year with his father, Andre Martin, and Julian Crozier, nephew of the manager of the American plant in Norwich.
This history would be incomplete without at least passing mention of this young man, who later gave his life for his country. He remained at the plant of the company until the declaration of war in France. In August, 1914, he returned to France to enlist in the French army, and was killed in action in December of the same year. He was well known in Norwich, in both social and business circles, and his loss is mourned by many friends here, and the name of Julian Crozier will long be remembered in Norwich.
Mr. Martin remained at the Norwich plant of the company, familiarizing himself with every detail, until May, 1914, when he returned to France. Enter- ing the French army in August, 1914, he was as. signed to service with the British army, as inter- preter, with the British Indian Army Corps, from Hindustan. He was with this corps as interpreter in English, German, French and Indian languages, continuing in this capacity through 1915 and 1916. During this time he was in the battles of the Somme, the first and second battles of Ypres, and many other engagements. In 1916 he was commissioned second-lieutenant of Dismounted Cavalry, of t':e
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French army, and continued in that office until the end of the war. He was in the battles of Chemin Des Dames, in 1916 and 1917; in the battle of Nayon in 1918, beginning on March 23, and lasting for eight days; at the front in the battle of Plesses-de-Roye, in 1918; in the battle of the Argonne Forest, in 1918, and was with that branch of the army when the war was ended. He was discharged from active duty in March, 1919, and assigned to the reserve army of France.
In October, 1919, Mr. Martin returned to his busi- ness interests in Norwich, after an absence, on ac- count of the war, of nearly six years. Here he re- sumed his position as general manager of the J. B. Martin Company, Incorporated, and is continuing and broadening the business policies by which his father gave the company its initial impulse in this country. His position as head of the largest manu- facturing establishment of its class in America, places Mr. Martin in the forefront of the manufacturing interests of this county and State.
Mr. Martin married, in Paris, on June 24, 1914. Margaret May Aubert, who was born in Paris, France, and is a daughter of Albert Aubert. Mrs. Martin's father, who is now deceased, was a promi- nent architect in the city of Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have one daughter, Anne Monique, born in Paris, June 12, 1916. The family are members of the Roman Catholic church.
HOWARD L. STANTON, chief of the Norwich Fire Department, was born at Norwich, Connecticut, July 17, 1854, the eldest son of George H. and Helen (Sparks) Stanton. He attended public schools until twelve years of age, when he was obliged to go to work. Nine years was the length of time of his service in the machine shop of C. B. Rogers & Co., builders of woodworking machinery. During a portion of the time he was apprenticed to the machinist trade. In 1875 he went to work for the Bacon Arms Company, builders of revolvers and pistols, in the capacity of tool maker, as at this time he was recognized as a first-class mechanic. In August, 1881, he went with Lester & Wasley, build- ers of automatic envelope machinery, where he re- mained until July, 1901. July 1, 1901, he was elected chief of the Norwich Fire Department. His connection with the fire department dates from his early years in the machine shop, he having worked up through all grades to the position of assistant chief in 1881, holding the position until 1899, when he resigned to give his entire time to Messrs. Lester & Wasley.
He is a director in the Chelsea Savings Bank and of the Masonic Temple Corporation; vice-president and director of the Lester & Wasley Company, a member of the Connecticut Society and Sons of the American Revolution. He has received all the Masonic degrees in the York and Scottish Rite, including the thirty-third, and the last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of Amer- ica, and has passed the chairs of most of the bodies.
He is also a life member of Pyramid Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of Bridgeport, .Connecticut; also a member of the International Association of Fire Engineers; of the International Association of Municipal Electricians; of the National Fire Protec- tion Association; of the New England Association of Fire Chiefs, a life member of the Connecticut State Firemen's Association and ex-president of the same; also a member of the Connecticut Fire Chiefs' Club and ex-president of the same; member of the Nor- wich Chamber of Commerce and the Commonwealth Club of New York.
October 22, 1874, Mr. Stanton was united in mar- riage with Frances Loosee Hotchkiss, of Norwich, Connecticut, who died December 19, 1899, daughter of Edwin O. and Eliza Hotchkiss, of Norwich. He married (second) Kathrine K. Kind, January 25, 1905, daughter of Joseph and Henrietta Kind, of Norwich. Two children were born of the first union: Amy Louise Stanton, and Georgie Coit Stanton, both residents of Norwich; Amy L. was born January 3, 1878, and Georgie C. was born April 30, 1879.
HON. WILLIAM A. BUCKINGHAM, LL.D .- The following narrative of the life of Hon. William A. Buckingham was prepared by the late Noah Porter, D.D., LL.D., at the time president of Yale, and appeared as a "Memoir of Senator Buckingham" in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register of January, 1876, and without question it is the most complete character sketch of Mr. Buck- ingham in print. "The writer of this sketch knew Senator Buckingham from before the beginning of his publie career to the end of his life, and had fre- quent opportunities to judge of him in almost every one of the relations which have been named. After abating all that might be required from the particu- lars of personal friendship, he can honestly give his testimony that a conscientious sincerity and a graceful symmetry gave the strength and beauty to a character which other generations may reasonably hold in the highest honor."
William Alfred Buckingham was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, May 28, 1804. His father, Samuel, was born in Saybrook, and was a descendant in the direct line from the Rev. Thomas Buckingham, the minister of Saybrook (1665-1709), one of the ten founders of Yale College, and one of the moderators of the Synod which framed the Saybrook Platform. Thomas was the son of Thomas, one of the original members of the New Haven Colony, but soon re- moved to Milford, where he was one of the "seven pillars" of the church at its organization. His mother, Joanna Matson, was born in Lyme, Connec- ticut, January 25, 1777, died December 9, 1846. The parents began their married life in Saybrook, but soon removed to Lebanon, where they died and were buried. William was the second of six chil- dren, the others being: Abigail, born March 26, 1801, died June 27, 1861; Luey Ann, born October 25, 1806, died September 2, 1853; Samuel Matson, born July 12, 1809, died November 26, 1810; Samuel Giles,
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born November 18, 1812; Israel Matson, born August 5, 1816.
Lebanon is a quiet, pleasant country town, scarcely a village, eleven miles from Norwich, on the high road to Hartford. Its broad and grassy street is bordered by a few farm houses, comfortable and neat rather than elegant, which are distributed at convenient distances for the uses of the more than usually comfortable farmers who own them. Near the meeting-house are a few dwellings a little more distinguished, as the former residences of the Gov- ernors Trumbull, and the "store," which, during and ever since the war of the Revolution, has been dignified by the name of the "Old War Office." Lebanon had been for nearly fifty-four years-from December, 1772, to February, 1826- trained and honored by the ministry of Solomon Williams, D.D., brother of Elisha Williams, rector of Yale College, and himself a leader among the Connecticut divines. Here was born, in 1710, the first Jonathan Trum- bull, who graduated at Harvard College in 1727, and was chosen Governor of Connecticut annually from 1769 to 1783-which office he resigned after fifty years of public service. His son Jonathan, born at Lebanon, graduated at Harvard College, 1759, was paymaster to the army, 1776-1778; secretary and aide to Washington, 1780-1783; in 1789, member of Con- gress; in 1791, speaker of the Lower House; in 1794, senator; and from 1798 to 1809, governor of Con- necticut. An academy also graced this village green, and had been sustained for many years with more or less regularity.
Here were all the conditions for the training of a character like that of Senator Buckingham. A small population all known to one another; nearly enough upon a level to be animated by a common sympa- thy, and yet sufficiently varied in position and cul- ture to be able to give without condescension, and to receive without servility; all devout in their habits, and worshiping with simple rites in the one church which their fathers had planted; all laboring for a livelihood, and therefore industrious in habits and simple in manners; all believing in intelligence and courtesy as only inferior to godliness. No thoughtful youth could live in such a community without special incitements to public spirit and the love of country. The traditions of the old war office would stir the heart of any aspiring boy who saw with his own eyes the marks of the spurs left by orderlies and aides-de-camp as they sat waiting for dispatches, and listened with bated breath to the stories of the Revolution, which fell from the lips of all the elders of the town, and heard them describe, as they had seen, the persons of Washington, Lafay- ette, Knox and Rochambeau. Nor could such a boy stand before the Trumbull tomb in the old bury- ing ground, where were garnered the sacred dust of the two governors, of Joseph, the first commis- sary-general in the war of the Revolution, and of William Williams, one of the signers of the Declara-
tion of Independence, without imbibing some of that patriotism.
Living from his earliest years under such influ- ences, the dignity of a life of public duty, and of sacrifices for God and country, could not but be im- pressed upon a nature so sensitive and high-minded as was that of young Buckingham. Most influen- tial of all was the atmosphere of his own home, over which the grave but gentle father presided with unpretending dignity, and which was pervaded by the cheerful sunlight of an active and loving mother, whose ministries of love and blessing filled the whole community. Besides the education of his home, with its lessons of industry and duty, of self-sacrifice and courtesy, and the education of the community, with its patriotic memories and pride, Mr. Buckingham had the best advantages of the public schools and academy of Lebanon, and of the Bacon Academy at Colchester, which at that time was much resorted to. One of his schoolmates at Colchester, from a distant part of the State, had described him as being in his youth what he was in manhood, singularly manly, earnest, noble and at- tractive. He labored upon the farm with a willing heart and strong hands. He taught a district school at Lyme a single winter, when eighteen years old, with great success. When twenty years of age he entered a dry goods house in Norwich as clerk. After a year's experience there and a few months in a wholesale house in New York, he opened a dry goods store in Norwich. In 1830 he engaged in the manufacture of ingrain carpets, which he con- tinned for eighteen years. In 1848 he relinquished both these occupations and embarked in the manu- facture of India-rubber goods, and was made the treasurer and an active director in the Hayward Rubber Company. Subsequently he became inter- ested in several important manufacturing enterprises. As a man of business he was distinguished for in- dustry, integrity and promptness. He uniformly ful- filled his engagements, and his credit was unques- tioned for any sum which he required for himself, or for his country.
On September 27, 1830, he was married to Miss Eliza Ripley, daughter of Dwight Ripley, of Nor- wich, she being eminently fitted to make his life cheerful and public-spirited, and whose hospitality was as cordial and liberal as his own. Mrs. Buck- ingham died April 19, 1868, leaving his home and heart desolate. His only son, William Ripley, died in early childhood, and his surviving daughter, Eliza Coit, born December 7, 1838, was married August 28, 1861, to William A. Aiken, who served upon his staff, as quartermaster general, during the war, and since his marriage has made his home in Norwich.
In 1830 he became a communicant of the Second Congregational Church, and was prominent in the organization of a new church in 1842, of which he was a deacon, and a conspicuous and most zealous friend and benefactor. He was a Sunday school
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teacher for thirty-seven years of his life, excepting four years during the war. He was principal chair- man of the National Congregational Council in Bos- ton in 1865. He was always, in public and private, pronounced in the avowal of the Christian faith, and always fervent and decided in the expression of Christian feeling. The prayers which hallowed his home and edified many Christian assemblies will not soon be forgotten by those who heard them. His Christian liberality was from the first to the last uniformly generous, cheerful and systematic. He was in principle and in practice a decided friend of temperance, and from the beginning to the end of his public life, which was distinguished for lavish and refined hospitality, he never deviated, in public or in private, from the letter or the spirit of his avowed pledges and principles. His interest in edu- cation was intelligen't, constant and most liberal. He was foremost in all the movements of his fellow- citizens for the improvement of the public schools, was active and generous from the first in the en- dowment and management of the Norwich Free Academy, and was a princely benefactor of Yale College, especially of the Theological Department. Some of his liberal contributions were the spon- taneous offerings of his conscientious and willing generosity. He was not content with giving hin- self, but was active in prompting others to con- tribute, and always with refined courtesy. His bene- factions were by no means confined to public so- cieties and institutions. To the poor and unfortu- nate he was a sympathizing and tender-hearted friend, giving with a cheerful heart, with wise dis- cretion, with a delicate regard to the feelings of those whom he helped, and with unfeigned modesty. Before he entered political life, he was known as a quiet and modest citizen, unobtrusive in manners, though firm in principle, rarely if ever participating in public discussion, conspicuously intelligent, cour- teous and refined, and as conspicuously unobtrusive in the public manifestations of his opinions.
Though decided in his political sympathies and opinions, and though not infrequently solicited to be a candidate for a seat in the Legislature of the State, he consented but once, and was defeated. In 1849, 1850, 1856 and 1857 he was mayor of Nor- wich. In 1858 he was elected Governor of Connec- ticut, not so much on the ground of his eminent political services or any special gifts of statesman- ship, as on account of the universal confidence which was reposed in his good sense, his integrity, his courtesy, and his eminent moral worth. He had not been known to the people of the State as a public leader. He had been least of all prominent as man- ager or leader in any party relations, although he had been decided and zealous at home in the coun- cils of the Republican party from its first organiza- tion, as he had previously been in the Whig party before it. He had never had the opportunity of being known to the leading men of the State as a speaker in legislative assembly, or in any other than small assemblies of men, and in them only as they
were gathered for some philanthropic or religious object. But he was well known and thoroughly re- spected in Norwich, and in all eastern parts of the State, as an honest, single-minded, firm-hearted, public-spirited Christian gentleman, who united in himself a rare combination of qualities which are fitted to command the respect and to win the confi- dence and love of his fellow-men. He was first elected by a small majority, later elections giving him very large majoritics, and for eight years was continued in the office, until he resigned its duties and honors.
At the time of his election to the office of Gov- ernor, neither he nor his friends anticipated what was before him. Had he either known, or even dimly foreboded, that the office, from being little more than a place of easy routine and formal admin- istration, would be suddenly transformed into a post of the most serious responsibility, involving perplexity, toil and anxiety, both he and his friends would have hesitated in thinking that he was the fittest man to fill the place and to fill it so long. No one would have dared to predict that he would meet all its responsibilities with such distinguished suc- cess. But in review it may be confidently affirmed, that from the time when the first mutterings of war were heard, 'to the moment when they died into silence, no citizen of the State was ever thought of as in any respect superior to, or comparable with, the noble "war Governor" who represented the Stat of Connecticut. Whether his relations are consid- ered to the Executive of the United States, to the governors of the other States, to the party of Con- necticut opposed to the war, to the soldiers and officers from Connecticut, to the men who were re- cruited or drafted, who were sick or in prison, to the banks and men of business all over the country, or to the American people as far as they knew of him, his fitness for his place was unquestioned. Whether on horseback at an election parade or in a public reception, whether reading his own messages or speaking at a sudden call, often under very trying circumstances, whether writing stirring letters to President Lincoln, or addressing regiment after regiment as cach was hurried away to the field, whether conferring with his staff or trusted friends in sudden exigencies, he was always heroic, patient, self-controlled and courteous. He met the demand of every public occasion with dignity and self-pos- session. At the time when he was elected he had been little accustomed to public speaking, or to writing anything more than letters of business. Though familiar with political topics he had not been trained to write or speak on them in public, because the necessity of defending and enforcing his political opinions had never been imposed upon him.
His friends could never doubt that he would suc- cessfully meet all the practical demands of his office, while they might reasonably question whether he would meet its intellectual requisitions with any special cclat. It was interesting to see how quickly he came up to the requirements of the position in
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these respects; how well from the first he wrote and spoke on the many occasions on which he was called upon. It was still more interesting to notice, when the country was first aroused to defend its life, how clearly his mind was enlarged, and his heart glowed with patriotic feeling, and how nobly lie spoke and wrote. His messages and correspondence were not only important documents in the history of the war, but they reflect the highest honor on the mind and head of their author. His own clear and practical intellect discerned earlier than many prac- ticed statesmen what the issues were, and how stern and lasting the struggle would be. His decisive and ringing words bespoke serious and painful fore- bodings on the one hand, but they breathed only courage and triumph on the other. He wrote and spoke as a prophet, because he wrote and spoke from those firm convictions which were in- spired by his faith in the right, and in God who had defended the right in the past and could not desert it in the present. The people of Connecticut believed in him, because they recognized in his measured yet fervent words, and read in his consis- tent character and acts, their own strong convictions and their unshaken purposes. Whatever might have been thought of single acts of his, no Connecticut man who believed in the war failed to believe in Governor Buckingham. He reflected so perfectly the wishes and resolves of his fellow-citizens, and they did not hesitate to accept him as their leader. In multitudes of households his portrait was con- spicuously displayed, and his name is still pro- nounced with love and honor. The services ren- dered by him to Connecticut and to the Union were also self-sacrificing and laborious. His private busi- ness was to a great extent transferred to others. His days and nights were spent in unremitted labor. His mind was oppressed by public care and his heart was tried by ready sympathy. While it was also true that he had grown in intellect and character under the noble opportunities to which he so nobly responded, it was also true that he had given to others the best strength and the best days of his life. It was not surprising that after he resigned his office, in 1866, he was elected in May, 1868, to fill the first vacancy which occurred in the Senate of the United States. In that office he continued until his death, which occurred one month before his term expired. As a senator he was dignified, courteous and con- scientious, and won the respect and affection of men of all parties. In debate he was always clear, pointed and brief.
He comprehended with great clearness the politi- cal and financial difficulties incident to the process of reconstruction, and he endeavored to meet these difficulties with entire fidelity to his convictions. No man ever doubted his honesty or his uprightness during the years of experiment and doubt in which he filled his high position. If it is premature to pronounce upon the wisdom of every measure which he supported, or of every individual action which he performed while a Senator, it is not premature to
assert that he retained his personal and his political integrity from the beginning to the end. His home in Washington was elegant and hospitable, and it was hallowed by domestic worship; and in his pub- lic duties he never overlooked or lightly esteemed his duties to God, or to his own Christian profes- sion. In the summer preceding his death he showed symptoms of debility. These increased as the win- ter came on. In the anticipation that his life might soon be terminated, he was entirely serene, and on the night of February 4, 1875, he died.
Senator Buckingham was especially remarkable for the symmetry of his constitution and character. In person, in bearing, in manners, in disposition, in intellect, in industry, in patience, in reserved energy, in the knowledge of affairs, in an affectionate and sympathizing nature, in serupulous conscientious- ness, in fervent and enlightened religious feeling he was harmoniously endowed and moulded into a rare example of human perfection. In his own home this example shone most brightly. To his friends he was frank and open-hearted. To the poor and friendless he was ever sympathizing and helpful. To his fellow-citizens he was the soul of probity and honor. To the community he was eminently public-spirited and generous. To the State and the country he gave all that he was and all that he could perform. To God he gave a filial and trusting heart and an obedient and conscientious life, in which he followed his Great Master in meek and humble discipleship.
A bronze statue of Governor Buckingham was unveiled in the State House att Hartford, Connecti- cut, on June 18, 1884.
His residence in Norwich -- now known as "The Buckingham Memorial"-is owned and occupied by Sedgwick Post, No. I, Department of Connecticut, Grand Army of the Republic, and also used by its affiliated organizations, the Woman's Relief Corps and the Sons of Veterans, who cherish it and its historic associations (as also connected with visits from Lincoln, Grant and many other noted men), with the most scrupulous tenderness. Upon his granite monument in Yantic cemetery, Norwich, is the following inscription:
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