USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume II > Part 56
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has carried on ever since. The business is the oldest of its kind in town and has a complete and up-to- date equipment.
Mr. Lathrop's interests and activities are not con- fined to his business. He is a member of the Masonic order, affiliating with Somerset Lodge No. 34, Free and Accepted Masons; Franklin Chapter, No. 3, Royal Arch Masons; Franklin Council, No. 4, Royal and Select Masters; Columbian Commandery, Knights Templar, of Norwich; and is a noble of Sphinx Temple, Aneient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a Scottish Rite Mason of the thirty-second degree, and a member of Norwich Lodge, No. 430, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and of the Society of the Founders of Nor- wich, being a descendant of fourteen of the original thirty-five founders of the town of Norwich. Polit- ically, he is a Republican.
On June 3, 1907, Mr. Lathrop married Elizabeth Maclaren Palmer, daughter of Oscar Orrin and Jean (Cassaday) Palmer. They became the parents of one child, Jean Palmer, now deceased.
NATHAN HUNT HALL, A.B .- Although edu- cated for, and for several years engaged in the pro- fession of pedagogy, Nathan Hunt Hall, nearly a quarter of a century ago, abandoned that profession and returned to the business usually followed by his forebears, general and dairy farming. The years have brought him prosperity and reputation, and he is one of the leading agriculturists of the county, very prominent in the county and local granges of the Patrons of Husbandry, and a citizen of influence and worth.
Mr. Hall is of the ninth generation of the family founded in New England by George and Mary Hall, who were of Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 1637, and George Hall was one of the forty-six original pro- prietors of the town of Taunton, and a founder in 1639. George Hall was one of the owners of the first iron bloomery established in that section by the famous Leonard family of iron masters, also was a founder of Pilgrim Congregational Church and Society of Taunton. He passed away in Taunton, October 30, 1669, a citizen of wealth and influence. The line of descent in this branch is traced through their son, Samuel.
(II) Samuel Hall, son of George and Mary Hall, was born in 1644, and died in Taunton, Massachu- setts, early in 1690. He was associated with his brothers and father in the iron works, and was a large land owner, sharing in the Taunton North and South purchases. He married Elizabeth White, who died in 1709, after seventeen years of widowhood, daughter of Nicholas White, an early settler of
Taunton. He held official position in the town, and was a member of the original Taunton church.
(III) George (2) Hall, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (White) Hall, was born January 25, 1681. He resided in that part of Taunton set off as Norton in 1711, and Easton in 1725. He married Lydia Dean, daughter of Thomas and Catherine (Stephens) Dean, and they reared a large family.
(IV) Isaac Hall, son of George (2) and Lydia (Dean) Hall, was born in Norton, Massachusetts, January 12, 1714. He removed to Lyme, Connecticut, 1739-40. He was an iron worker and operated a "forge" in connection with the farm. He died in Lyme, July 26, 1778. He married Sarah Forbes, of Preston, Connecticut, who died in 1786, and both are buried in a small graveyard east of Laysville, on the turnpike in Lyme.
(V) Ezra Hall, son of Isaac and Sarah (Forbes) Hall, spent his life as a farmer, settling along the road leading to Grassy Hill in Lyme.
(VI) Jonathan Hall, son of Ezra Hall, was a farmer of Lyme, who died aged eighty-two years, his death resulting from being thrown from a wagon. He was buried in Old Lyme. He married, April 8, 1800, Betsey Lord, and they were the parents of ten children.
(VII) Ezra (2) Hall, son of Jonathan and Betsey (Lord) Hall, was born in Lyme, Connecticut, Janu- ary 6, 1803, and died February 9, 1859, spending his entire life in the town of Lyme. He was a success- ful farmer, settling after marriage on the farm ad- joining the home of his youth. He was a member of Grassy Hill Congregational Church, a Whig in poli- tics, but just before his death united with the newly founded Republican Party. He married Elizabeth Kellogg, born in Colchester, Connecticut, who sur- vived him, dying in Lyme, aged seventy-four years.
(VIII) Judah Selden Hall, son of Ezra (2) and Elizabeth (Kellogg) Hall, was born in Lyme, Con- nectient, September 9, 1836, and there died March 20, 1898. He was a successful farmer, a quiet, re- served man, strong physically and mentally, serving his town as selectman and in other positions of trust. Politically he was a Republican, and in religions faith a Congregationalist, a devout member of the Lyme church and a strong pillar of support. His years, sixty-two, were well spent, and he passed away honored and esteemed. He married, Novem- ber 27, 1862, in Lyme, Hannah Miller, daughter of Rev. Alpha and Hannah (Hunt) Miller, her father performing his daughter's marriage ceremony. Mrs. Hall survived her husband, as did their five children, all born in Lyme: I. Edwin J., who became a gen- eral merchant of Shortsville, New York; married Inez Haas. 2. Nathan Hunt, of further mention.
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3. Joseph Kellogg, a farmer of the town of Ledyard, New London county, Connecticut; married Mary E. Gillette. 4. Henry Strong, a teacher of music in Middletown, Connecticut; married Edith Burr. 5. William Miller, a mechanical draughtsman and ma- chinist of New York City; married Ora Bowen, of Waterbury, Connecticut.
(IX) Such were the antecedents of Nathan Hunt Hall, of the ninth Hall generation in New England, of the sixth generation in Connecticut, and of the first in the town of Preston, New London county. He was born in Lyme, Connecticut, April 13, 1868, and there obtained his public school instruction. He then entered Phillips Andover Academy, finishing with the class of 1887, passing thence to Williams College, receiving his bachelor degree, class of 1891. He began teaching in a private business college in Brooklyn, New York, continuing one year, then for two years was a teacher of English, German and French in Bordentown Military Institute, Borden- town, New Jersey. He taught Latin, Greek and English in the preparatory school conducted in New York by Lonis Prossor, for one year; the same studies in Erie Academy, Erie, Pennsylvania, for another year; then for a time was an instructor in Reedsville Academy, Reedsville, Pennsylvania. After a short time as instructor in Reedsville, he became head of the academy, conducting it for a year under his own name. His father died in the spring of 1898, and the same year Professor Hall abandoned his profession, purchased the William Morse farm in the town of Preston, New London county, Connecti- cut, and has ever since devoted himself to the culti- vation of its one hundred and thirty-seven acres. General farming with special attention to the dairy department has been the line followed, and he has caused his acres to produce abundantly. Fine blooded Jersey cattle are his choice for his dairy herd, although he has some graded stock. The dairy feature of the farm has grown into greater prominence with each year, until it outranks the general farming department. Butter making is con- ducted on a large scale, and every modern aid to successful farming or dairying is employed. Mr. Hall is a practical farmer, but gladly avails himself of all the aid books and periodicals, agricultural col- leges, farmers' institutes and organizations can give. He is also a scientific farmer, but does not overlook the fact that there is a "rule of thumb" which often produces good crops, and he welcomes all sugges- tions from those who farm in their own way without regard to science of books.
He has long been affiliated with the Patrons of Husbandry, and is a leader in that organization which has done so much for the farmer and the
farmer's family. He has been master of the Preston City Grange, and in 1916-17 was master of Pomona Grange, the county organization of the Patrons of Husbandry. In politics he is a Republican and has served the town of Preston as first selectman. He has been superintendent of the Sunday school of the Preston City Congregational Church for the past eighteen years, and has been equally interested in the Church Society and its several branches of work.
In Lyme, Connecticut, Mr. Hall married (first), August 30, 1894, Ursula Raymond Ely, who died in Preston, September 1, 1913, the mother of four children, all of whom died in infancy. He married (second), October 3, 1916, Alice Dickey Abell, widow of Charles Abell, of Bozrah, New London county, Connecticut.
LEWIS M. CARPENTER-As agent and official of the Ashland Cotton Company, Lewis M. Car- penter holds a prominent place in the manufacturing life of New London county, Connecticut, and in addition is officially associated with the various activities of municipal life.
Mr. Carpenter is a son of Joseph E. Carpenter, who was born in Norwich, Connecticut, and there attended the public schools. When a young man lic became stationary engineer at Allyns Point, Con- necticut, and later was with the Holnies Transporta- tion Company of New Jersey as engineer. While serving in this capacity on vessels of the company, he sailed into many of the important ports of the world. In 1906 he retired from active service, and now (1921) is living at Fort Point, Preston, Con- necticut. At one time Mr. Carpenter represented the town of Preston in the Connecticut Legislature, where he was a member of the Humane Committee. He married Isabella Maynard, formerly a school teacher of Fort Point, and to them have been born seven children, five of whom are still living: Esther M., a Red Cross nurse, who died in 1918; William S., a railroad engineer, married Harriet Treadway, and resides at Putnam, Connecticut; Ruth E., man- ager of the Hartford Golf Club, at Hartford; Lewis M., of further mention; Charles F., deceased; Paul C., office manager for the Turner Halsey Company, of New York City; and Alma B.
Lewis M. Carpenter was born in Ledyard, Con- necticnt, May 21, 1881, and obtained his education in the public schools of Norwich, Norwich Free Academy, and Norwich Business College, complet- ing the commercial course at the last-named institu- tion in 1903. He began business life in the textile industry, entering the employ of the American Thread Company, there remaining until 1908, gaining a practical knowledge of the different branches of the
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industry and attaining the position of chief clerk in the superintendent's office. For the following two years he was salesman for the Chelsea File Works, of Norwich, then, in 1910, he accepted the position of office manager for the Ashland Cotton Company, of Jewett City; he advanced to the office of superin- tendent in 1914, was appointed agent in 1918, then to his present position as agent, assistant secretary and assistant treasurer of the company. To those who know Mr. Carpenter there is nothing but satisfaction expressed at his success, for it has been won through merit. He began as a boy to acquire business experi- ence, and he filled each place so well that he was the logical candidate for the next higher position. He has studied the theory of manufacturing costs, the science of wages, records, the art of developing men, and organization, and with all is intensely practical and progressive.
Politically Mr. Carpenter is a Republican, and takes a keen and helpful interest in civic affairs. He is chairman of the Republican Committee of the town of Griswold, and a member of the Board of Burgesses of the borough of Jewett City. He is a member of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers; an incorporator and auditor of the Jewett City Sav- ings Bank; trustee of the Slater Library of Jewett City; and a member of the Board of Education of the town of Griswold. He is a director of Barstow, Hill & Company, Inc., bankers of Boston, Massachusetts, also of the Ashland Cotton Co., and of the Mustards Products, Inc., of New York City. A man of action, he demonstrates his public spirit by aiding civic movements, and responds to any reasonable call made upon him. He is a supporter of the Ashlands, one of the first-class ball clubs of Eastern Connec- ticut, and it was through his influence that the open air dance pavilion in Jewett City, known as the Ash- land Casino, was erected.
Mr. Carpenter is prominent in fraternal circles, being affiliated with Mt. Vernon Lodge, No. 75, Free and Accepted Masons; Franklin Chapter, No. 4, Royal Arch Masons; Franklin Council, No. 3, Royal and Select Masters; Columbian Commandery, No. 4, Knights Templar; King Solomon Lodge of Per- fection; Van Rensselaer Council, Princes of Jerusa- lem; Norwich Chapter, Rose Croix; Connecticut Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, thirty- second degree; and a noble of Sphinx Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of Reliance Lodge, No. 29, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and past grand master of Jewett City encampment of the order.
Lewis M. Carpenter married, October 31, 1912, Agnes R. Wilson, daughter of Andrew and Agnes (Wilson) Wilson. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter are the
parents of one child, Russell A. Mr. and Mrs. Car- penter are members of the Jewett City Congrega- tional Church.
MARTIN VAN BUREN BRAINARD-The use- ful life of Martin Van Buren Brainard extended over a period of three-quarters of a century, 1836-1911, and from 1896 until the age of constitutional re- quirement, he filled the office of judge of probate for the town of Montville, Connecticut. So well did he perform the duties of his office, and so thorough- ly did he understand its business, that when super- seded as probate judge on account of his years, he was appointed clerk of the Probate Court that the new judge might have the benefit of his long experi- ence and wisdom. He was a man of sterling char- acter, and so strong was the confidence his manly, upright life inspired within his townsmen that there was scarcely an office within their gift which they did not bestow upon him. Public-spirited and pro- gressive, his spirit of usefulness did not stop with civic affairs, but he was equally helpful in the church, where as deacon and as Sunday school superintend- ent he gave many years of his life to church work. No man was more highly esteemed by any com- munity than he, and his passing in 1911 was genuine- ly regretted. He was a good man, a good citizen, and a good neighbor.
Judge Brainard was a son of Zeno Brainard, and a direct descendant of Daniel Brainard, who was brought, a lad of eight years, to Hartford, Connec- ticut, and later became a land proprietor of Haddam. He was a justice of the peace, a deacon of the church, and a prosperous, influential citizen. Zeno Brainard, a descendant of Daniel Brainard, the founder of the family in Connecticut, was born in Ledyard, Connecticut, May 6, 1809, and all his active years engaged in farming. He conducted a farm of seventy-five acres in East Haddam, Connecticut, until 1845, when he moved to Montville, where he bought a farm of one hundred acres on the old Chesterfield and Norwich Turnpike. He conducted that farm very profitably until his death, and gained at the same time the respect of his neighbors who grew to admire the genial, good-natured man and to appreciate his good qualities. He was an ardent Democrat, and held several town offices, including that of assessor. He died in Montville, August 8, 1899, aged eighty years, three months, two days. Zeno Brainard married Mary Hilliard, born in Salem, Connecticut, September 18, 1812, died September 19, 1897, in Montville, daughter of Deacon Hilliard, a local preacher. They were the parents of six chil- dren, this review following the career of Martin
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Van Buren, the eldest son and second child.
Martin Van Buren Brainard was born in Salem, Connecticut, February 27, 1836, and died at his home in Montville, Connecticut, November 22 1911. The first nine years of his life were spent in East Had- dam, Connecticut, when the family moved to the Montville farm, and there he attended school and assisted in the farm labor until seventeen years of age. During the winter of 1853, he taught for the first time in a Montville district school, then for a term was a student in a New London school. Not liking farm work, he learned the carpenter's trade, and in 1870 formed a partnership with W. Irving Browning, his wfe's brother, and, as Brainard & Browning, conducted a wheelwright shop and car- riage factory, which proved a successful enterprise, Mr. Browning becoming sole owner, Mr. Brainard's health failing about 1880, cansing his withdrawal.
Even before leaving the carriage business, Mr. Brainard had served as administrator and executor of several estates, his bonds at one time amounting to $90,000. He bought land in Palmertown, which he divided into building lots, and conducted limited farming operations until 1896, when he was elected judge of probate for the town of Montville, and by continuous election he was continued in that office until reaching the age limit in 1906. He then served a. clerk of the Probate Court one term and then retired.
Other offices which he filled for many years were town clerk, to which he was first elected, September 1, 1897; school committeeman, twenty years; select- man, seven years; first selectman, four years; assess- or; member of the Board of Relief; and justice of the peace. In politics he was a Republican, in religion a Baptist, and a pillar of the Montville church. From 1892 until his death he was a deacon of that church, and from about the same date was superintendent of the Sunday school. He was truly a "useful" man, and a volume would be too small to record all his good deeds.
Judge Brainard married, January 2, 1866, Martha Maria Browning, daughter of Dr. Isaac Browning, of Montville. Mrs. Brainard survived her husband, and was a resident of the village of Palmertown in the town of Montville. Her death occurred in Mont- ville, April 6, 1921.
ROBERT ROBERTSON AGNEW, M.D .- For a decade Dr. Agnew has practiced medicine in Nor- wich, Connecticut, and there has attained honorable standing as a physician and surgeon of learning and skill. He is a grandson of Robert R. Agnew, a captain in the Union army during the Civil War, who after the close of that conflict left his native
Connecticut and moved to Albany, New York, where his son, William B., was born.
William Banker Agnew was born in Albany, New York, and there educated in the public schools. In 1880 he located in New Haven, Connecticut, where he entered the employ of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad. He passed through the various grades of promotion between the apprentice and the right-hand side of the locomotive cab, event- ually becoming a trusted engineer. Of a mechanical turn of mind, he learned pattern-making after retir- ing from the railroad, and while his home is yet in New Haven, he is employed at the plant of the Malleable Iron Fittings Company in Branford, Con- necticnt. William B. Agnew married, in 1881, Alice E. Paige, born in Lancashire, England, comng to the United States in a sailing vessel with her parents, who settled in Branford. William B. and Alice E. (l'aige) Agnew were the parents of three children: Robert R., of further mention; George A., superin- tendent of the Mallcable Iron Fittings Company of Branford; and Edith May, wife of Alvin P. Sanford, of New Haven, Connecticut.
Dr. Robert R. Agnew, eldest son of William B. and Alice E. (Paige) Agnew, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, August 1, 1882. He attended grammar and high schools in New Haven, and at the age of fourteen was employed in a drug store, continuing in that position and studying pharmacy until 1901. He was not yet twenty years of age when, on Feb- ruary 10, 1901, he went before the State board of examiners and successfully passed the examination in pharmacy, receiving under the seal of the State of Connecticut his license as a registered pharmacist. This was not the goal of his ambition, however, and for three years, 1901-1904, although employed as a pharmacist, he was a student at Booth Preparatory School, and in 1904 entered Yale Medical School and pursued medical study for four years, working as a pharmacist during college vacation, and doing relief work in the drug store during the college months. He was graduated M. D., class of 1908, and to the experience gained while a student in surgery and as house physician in the New Haven hospital, he added a year's service as interne at the William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut. He became interne, July 1, 1908, and the following year he established in private medical and surgical prac- tice in Norwich, surgery of the abdomen and head his specialties. Surgery was his ambition always, and during his years of practice he lias taken con- tinuous post-graduate courses at the New York Post-graduate Hospital, going to New York City one day in each week. Even yet, as surgeon in the William W. Backus Hospital, he commands a large
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practice and has made great progress. He is de- voted to his profession and is highly regarded both by his brethren and the laity. He is a member of the Norwich, New London County, and Connecticut State Medical societies, and the American Medical Association. In his religions faith he is a Congre- gationalist, being a member of the Greenville Con- gregational Church. Dr. Agnew is a member of the Masonic order, being affiliated with Somerset Lodge, No. 34, Free and Accepted Masons. He is a member of the Norwich Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club, and in politics is a Republican.
Dr. Agnew married, in Ivoryton, Connecticut, February 9, 1910, Ellen Eliza Griswold, born in Ivoryton, daughter of Francis and Eliza (Jamieson) Griswold, her father born in Ivoryton, her mother in Middletown, Connecticut. Dr. and Mrs. Agnew are the parents of three children: Marion Elizabeth; William Griswold; and Robert Jamieson.
WILLIAM CHANNING BLANCHARD-One of the highly esteemed citizens of Lebanon, Connecti- cut, is William Channing Blanchard, known far and wide as an expert blacksmith and skilled master workman. Standing at the forge for thirty-five years, he saw to it that the horses of the region were skillfully and honestly shod, and many a vehicle ran the more smoothly because his dexterous hand had wrought the iron rims on its wheels. Broken tools brought to him for repairs were promptly re- stored to usefulness by the touch of his magic, and while the clanging strokes of his hammer rang upon the anvil, his friends and cronies loved to sit about and recall the olds days when they faced death together in the Civil War, or to discuss public affairs or crop conditions. Children, peeping in on their way to or from school were delighted with the showers of sparks that his vigorous arm sprayed from the glowing iron, and like the famous "village smithy," who wrought "under the spreading chestnut tree," he had a good word for all.
William Channing Blanchard, son of Daniel and May Ann (Hoxie) Blanchard, was born in Lebanon, New London county, Connecticut, September, 4, 1842. His father, Daniel Blanchard, was a native of Eastern Connecticut, who, after the death of his father, when he was six years of age, was raised by his grandfather, a farmer living in Brooklyn, Con- necticut. Daniel Blanchard settled in Lebanon, eventually, where he took up farming. He married Mary Ann Hoxie, of Lebanon, and died at the age of seventy-eight years. They were the parents of six children: Edwin, a farmer of Lebanon, who died, unmarried, at the age of forty; Harriet M., now a resident of Lebanon; Samuel W., a farmer of Leban-
on, who died unmarried; William Channing, of whom further; Frank B., a farmer, who died at the age of twenty-eight; and one child who died in early infancy.
William Channing Blanchard was reared and edu- cated in Lebanon, and at the age of nineteen, like thousands of other lads, he laid aside personal plans and ambitions and answered the call of the Federal Government for defenders of its honor and its authority. He enlisted, October 27, 1861, at Hart- ford, Connecticut, in Company D, 8th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, for a term of three years. His regiment accompanied the General Burnside expedi- tion organized to capture Roanoke Island, taking part in the battles of Roanoke Island, North Caro- lina, and in battles at Newbern and at Morehead, also in North Carolina. In 1862 the regiment was as- signed to the Army of the Potomac, under General McClellan, and served at Cold Harbor and Peters- burg, two of the severest engagements of the war. He was discharged at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, near Citypoint, Virginia, in October, 1864, never having received a wound throughout his three years' term of service. He returned to Lebanon, learned the blacksmith trade, and for thirty-five years continued to ply that trade in Lebanon. He built a shop, which is now occupied by the Lebanon creamery, where he daily practiced his honest magic until 1906, when he retired. In 1880 he bought his present home of twenty-three acres, on the north end of Lebanon Green, the old Stiles place, the homestead of his wife's parents.
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