USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume III > Part 33
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Andrew Smith Dexter was born in Norwich, Con- necticut, April 12, 1897. His parents having moved to Poquonock Bridge shortly after his birth, he grew up there, attending the public school. When the United States became involved in the World War, young Mr. Dexter went into the Groton Iron Works, then greatly in need of men, and remained with them until he received the appointment of post- master at Poquonock Bridge.
In politics Mr. Dexter is an independent, and his religious interest is with the Baptist church, of Po- quonock Bridge, of which he is an attendant. He is also connected with Fairview Lodge, No. 101, In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, of Groton, Con- necticut; and with Charity and Relief Lodge, No. 72, Free and Accepted Masons, of Mystic.
WILLIAM WHALEY-The life of William Whaley, farmer and merchant, of the town of East
Lyme and the village of Niantic, Connecticut, began in the second decade of the nineteenth century, and for sixty-eight years he was numbered among the residents of that town, and there, in the town of his birth, he was laid at rest. He was a man of industry, a good business man, kind-hearted and generous, living a quiet life of usefulness and doing good as he had opportunity. While a quiet, home-loving man, he did not shirk public duty, but served in dif- ferent capacities, being postmaster for fourteen years, having the office in his store. But one of his three children is now living in the village of Niantic, Miss Emma Baker Whaley, an esteemed lady, who resides in the old home her father built. William Whaley was one of a family of seven. I. Jonathan, born in Montville, Connecticut, February 5, 1801. 2. Ezra Moore, born February 18, 1808, married (first) Mary Anne -; and (second) Mary Ann Chapel. 3. James, born June 1, 1811, married Phoebe Harding. 4. Henry, born September 12, 1813, married Mary Brockaw. 5. William, of fur- ther mention. 6. Hannah, married Joseph Burton. 7. Waitstill O., born April 25, 1821, married William H. Wheeler.
William Whaley was born in Montville, Connecti- cut, January 30, 1815, died in the town of East Lyme, New London county, Connecticut, January 3, 1883. He was educated in the district schools and Bacon Academy, Colchester, Connecticut, being a graduate of the last-named institution. After school days were over he became his father's farm assistant, and there remained until 1857, when he moved to the village of Niantic, in East Lyme, where he built a house in which he resided until the erection of the present family home. In Niantic Mr. Whaley con- ducted a general store with much success until his deatlı. For fourteen years of that period he was postmaster of Niantic, and also held many of the minor town offices. He was a good business man and a good citizen, highly esteemed in his com- munity. He is buried in East Lyme cemetery.
William Whaley married Laura Ransome Turner, born in Montville, Connecticut, February 9, 1815, died August 5, 1905, daughter of James and Mary Turner. Mr. and Mrs. James Turner were the par- ents of nine children: Nathaniel; David, who was United States Consul at La Paz, Mexico, during President Grant's administration; Mary; Elmira; Laura Ransome, wife of William Whaley; Emme- line; Abby; James Henry; and Pere G.
William and Laura R. (Turner) Whaley were the parents of three children: I. Laura Turner, born in East Lyme, March 17, 1846, died May II, 1921; she married George Lester, of Niantic, Connecticut, but they later moved to Brooklyn, New York, where their two children, Edward Whaley and Ursula Hamilton Lester, were born. 2. Emma Baker, born in East Lyme, June 12, 1847; Miss Whaley has resided in Niantic since 1857, when her parents moved from the farm to the village, sixty-four years ago. 3. Sarah Romelia, born in Niantic, Connecticut, mar- ried Willis Goddell, of Hartford, Connecticut, and
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now resides in Newport, Rhode Island; they are the parents of a daughter, Ruth Turner Goddell.
JAMES BERNARD SHANNON-A man of pro- gressive nature and public spirit, James B. Shannon, now gone to his reward, accomplished a great deal for the iniprovement of the city of Norwich, to which city he came in 1867. For half a century he was engaged in business in the city, continuing it in the same location on Water street for thirty-seven years. It was not until 1892 that he began building opera- tions, but from that year until his death, twenty-five years later, he bought, built, and remodeled count- less buildings, made waste places bloom, and the rocks and mighty places become beautiful with homes and improved grounds. He reclaimed many old buildings and made them sightly residences. In fact, the work he did and inspired made a new Norwich, and he set an example in city improvement that is worthy of emulation.
James B. Shannon was of New York City birth, son of Patrick Shannon, born in Ireland, who came to the United States, settled in New York, and in 1849 joined the "gold seckers," and went to Cali- fornia. He died in New York City, in 1870, his wife, Mary (Carroll) Shannon, in 1892. For a time after the return of Patrick Shannon from California, in 1859, the family resided in Worcester, Massachusetts.
James B. Shannon was born in New York City, February 16, 1845, and died in Norwich, Connecticut, June 11, 1917. He was educated in New York City public schools, and there resided until the age of nine years, when he located in Worcester, Massachusetts, there continuing until reaching the age of twenty- one, when he came to Norwich, residing there from 1867 until his death, half a century later. He had been reared to work, and from his early experience came forth a sturdy, self-reliant young man, one not afraid of life, and equipped to resist adverse fortunc, a test which fortunately he was not in later life called upon to endure.
Soon after coming to Norwich he established a business on Water street, and continued there until 1904, when he moved to a brick building he had erected at the corner of Market and Commerce streets, there continuing until his retirement. In 1878 he became interested in real estate, and from that year his building operations date, and he be- came one of the city's largest improvement factors, not, however, as a philanthropist, but as an investor. From the time he began his building operations in 1878 he purchased sites and erected new buildings thereon, bought and remodeled old buildings, many of them difficult to change. For his own use he built a beautiful house on Washington street, with two acres of ground surrounding it, a great addition to the exclusive residential district.
In 1898 he built the first Shannon building, a five- story modern building at the corner of Main and Shetucket streets. That building was destroyed by fire February 9, 1909, but rebuilding on a large scale began as soon as the ruins had cooled enough to al- low workmen to enter. The present Shannon build-
ing, with one hundred and thirty feet frontage on Main and Shetucket streets, resulted, which is a mod- ern five-story office and store building, rated as a model fire-proof construction. One year after the fire the new building was ready for occupancy.
The Marguerite Block, a modern apartment and store building, was crected in 1901, at the corner of Main and North Main streets, having a forntage of one hundred ninety feet on both streets, and was the first apartment block built in Norwich. The Au- ditorium Theatre, now The Strand, was built in 1905 on Water street, and the Auditorium Hotel, a mod- ern, five-story, fireproof hotel, in 1915. The same year the Majestic, a modern four-story, fireproof block, with fourteen stores and a roof garden, was erected at the corner of Shetucket and Water streets. This block, the largest in Norwich, covers twenty- two thousand square feet. In all he erected and re- modeled more than twenty buildings, the foregoing being the more important, and James B. Shannon is recorded as the largest individual builder and the city's largest individual taxpayer of his time. He owned, in addition to his Norwich properties, a woolen mill at Baltic, Connecticut, and was finan- cially interested in other textile mills. He was a man of genial, friendly nature, very easy to approach, loyal to his friends, and very proud of his city.
Mr. Shannon was a director of the old First Na- tional Bank of Norwich. A Democrat in politics, he was very active in party affairs; was State central committeeman for sixteen years, and in 1892 was chairman of the Connecticut delegation to the Na- tional Convention held in Chicago, which, for the third time nominated Grover Cleveland for President of the United States. He was a member of the Ro- man Catholic Church, and very charitable, giving generously to all good causes.
James B. Shannon married (first) at Norwich, in May, 1870, Catherine Frances Cunningham, born in Newton, Massachusetts, who died in Norwich, Con- necticut, in July, 1894. Mr. and Mrs. Shannon were the parents of six children, all born in Norwich, Con- necticut: 1. James B. (2), a physician of Daniel- son, Connecticut, who died unmarried, in 1913. 2. Thomas I., a physician, who has made a special study of tuberculosis, and was at one time chief phy- sician in charge of the Loomis Sanitarium at Liberty, New York. He is now proprietor of Falls Village Sanitarium, Falls Village, Connecticut. 3. Mary Ger- trude, residing at the Shannon home, Washington street, Norwich. 4. Ella Claire, also residing at home. 5. Margaret Frances, married Charles C. McNamara, a merchant of Norwich, Connecticut. 6. John Henry, a sketch of whom follows. James B. Shannon married (second) in 1895, Katherine Frances Cunningham, who survives him, they the parents of one daughter, Madeleine Valerie, wife of John K. Foran, of New London.
Mr. Shannon found in his home complete relaxa- tion from weighty business cares, and was devoted to his family, He never sought, nor would accept public office, belonged to no secular fraternities, so- cieties or clubs, his only affiliations of that nature
Barnes B. Shawman.
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being with organizations of the church. He was emphatically a home man, and therc, where best known and loved, he was at his best. Such in brief was the career of one of the solid business men of Norwich, who showed his confidence in the future of his city by his works. He made prosperity, and in every movement which tended to advance the public good he either led the movement or warmly supported it. It is men of like courage, vision and judgment who make communities prosperous.
JOHN HENRY SHANNON-Of the three sons of James Bernard and Catherine Frances (Cunning- ham) Shannon (q. v.), the youngest, J. Henry Shan- non, was the only one to choose a business career, his brothers both having elected the medical pro- fession. The carrying on of the business established and developed by James B. Shannon has fallen upon the shoulders of this capable young man, who was his father's business associate and secretary during the later years of his life. As administrator of the Shannon estate, and as president of the Shannon Building Company, Incorporated, to care for the property interests of the estate he has demonstrated a fine business quality and an executive ability worthy of a veteran. And, indeed, he is a veteran in fact, for he wore the khaki on the battlefields of France during the World War and was overseas until June, 1920.
J. Henry Shannon was born in Norwich, Connecti- cut, September 12, 1888. After finishing private school study, he entered Norwich Free Academy, whence he was graduated, class of '07. His brothers having both chosen professions, the young man, when academy days were over, took his place with his father, and for ten years bore with him such burdens and responsibilities as the older man would surrender to his son. They were associated in many building and real estate operations, the young man serving his father as secretary in most confidential relation. Those ten years brought to young Mr. Shannon a wide experience, and when on June II, 1917, the father's strong personality was removed by death, J. Henry Shannon was appointed adminis- trator, and without difficulty or dissention fulfilled this important trust.
The war of 1917 with Germany was on when on February 19, 1918, Mr. Shannon entered the United States army, reporting at Camp Devens, near Lo- well, Massachusetts. He was assigned to the Quar- termaster's Department at Camp Johnson, Florida, and there spent two months prior to sailing overseas from New York on the transport "Van- ban." The transport landed her passengers at St. Nazaire, at the mouth of the River Loire, and three weeks later Mr. Shannon was at Tours, the head- quarters of the Quartermaster's Department of the American Expeditionary Forces. From Tours he was sent to the Lorraine front with the American troops engaged in the St. Mihiel sector, and after the armistice he was retained for duty in France until June, 1920, when he returned to the United States and was mustered out with an honorable discharge,
June 24, 1920, at Camp Lee, Virginia.
After his return from France, Mr. Shannon re- sumed business responsibilities as president of the Shannon Building Company, Inc., and so continues. The year of his return he established the Woodstock Dairy, a store for the sale of delicacies and luxuries for the table, and while this business is most suc- cessfully run by specialists, Mr. Shannon, as its pro- prietor, must share in the credit it has brought to its manager.
In politics, Mr. Shannon is a Democrat, and in 1912-13 represented his ward in the Norwich Com- mon Council. In 1913 he officially represented the city of Norwich as one of the delegates to the Na- tional Deep Waterways Convention which met that year in Washington, District of Columbia, and at that convention was elected secretary of the Con- necticut Deep Waterways Association. He is a member of the Norwich Chamber of Commerce, Norwich Rotary Club, of the executive committee of Robert O. Fletcher Post, American Legion, and is a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
WILLIAM LESLIE FLETCHER-The Norwich postoffice, an institution that comes nearer the lives of the people in the city than any other department of the government, has also been the one great busi- ness interest of the life of William L. Fletcher since graduation from Norwich Free Academy in 1880. He is the second eldest man in the employ of the office, being now (January, 1922) superintendent of mails. For forty-two years he has served the government in the Norwich post office, and there has compiled a record of usefulness, efficiency and faithfulness that cannot be excelled. William L. is a son of William Sterry Fletcher, grandson of Joseph Thompson Fletcher, great-grandson of William Fletcher, and great-great-grandson of Thomas Flet- cher. This name is found among the earliest comers in New England, but none who came prior to 1630 left descendants. Robert Fletcher who came from Yorkshire, England, in 1630, left sons and established a family.
The family was founded in Norwich, Connecticut, by William Fletcher, born July 26, 1774, who came to that city a man of middle age, and there died in his eighty-fifth year. He married, November 17, 1796, Sarah Young, born February 18, 1776, daugh- ter of James Young, who survived her husband until reaching the great age of ninety-five. One of her sons, the youngest, Sterry Young Fletcher, went West, became a Mississippi river steamboat captain, and resided in Paducah, Kentucky. Another of the sons of William and Sarah (Young) Fletcher was Joseph Thompson, grandfather of William Leslie Fletcher, superintendent of mails, Norwich, Connec- ticut.
Joseph Thompson Fletcher was born in Warren, Rhode Island, his father at the time of his birth, August 1, 1808, being a mill operative there. At the age of sixteen he went to sca as cabinboy, crossing the Atlantic ocean to Europe, and later was a sailor on vessels trading with the West Indies. At the age
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of twenty-seven he was made captain of a steam- ship owned by James L. Day, of Norwich, which ran between New Orleans and Galveston, lower Missis- sippi river, and other gulf ports. On his first voy- age as captain he was taken ill at Mobile, Alabama, there died August 19, 1835, and was buried in the churchyard at Dog River, near Mobile. He married, July 4, 1829, Eliza Lamphere, born in Plainfield, Connecticut, November 1, 1811, daughter of Russell Lampherc. Mrs. Fletcher, left a widow at the age of twenty-four, married a second husband, Ashabel A. Parkerson, whom she survived, dying at the home of her son, William S. Fletcher, in Norwich, in 1896.
William Sterry Fletcher, second son of Joseph Thompson and Eliza (Lamphere) Fletcher, was born in Norwich, January 29, 1833, and died in the city of his birth, in May, 1917. But two years of age when his father died, and there being three children for the young widow to support, the boys at an carly age became helpers, the lad William going to live with relatives. He attended the district school of his neighborhood, and remained at the home rela- tives made for him until 1847, when he left school and home, spending the next two years in the em- ploy of the Falls Company, of Norwich, as a clerk. His pay was fifty dollars annually with board, and for two years he was content. Then his inherited love for the sea won him away and he spent four years as sailor and fisherman. Upon his return to Norwich he entered the employ of Cobb and Bacon, manufacturers of firearms, spending four years with that firm and two with their successor, the Manhat- tan Arms Company.
In 1858 he returned to his first employer, the Falls Company, and continued in the clerical service of that company for twenty-two years. In 1880 he bought the store, later sold to N. A. Bingham, and in 1884 built the store which he conducted as a dry goods and grocery house very successfully until his last illness. He was a hard worker, a good business man, and a good citizen. In politics he was a Re- publican and in religious faith a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Fletcher married, in Norwich, Connecticut, September 2, 1860, Sarah Louise Jewett, born in Nor- wich, October 15, 1842, died May 15, 1899, daughter of Eleazer and Sarah Sherman Jewett. Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher were the parents of three children: William Leslie, of further mention; Cora E .; and Bertha G., who married William G. Browning, a traveling sales- man of Providence, Rhode Island.
William Leslie Fletcher, eldest child and only son of William Sterry and Sarah Louise (Jewett) Fletcher, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, March 8, 1862, and there yet resides (January, 1922). He was educated in Norwich Free Academy, whence he was graduated, class of 1880, and the same year ad- mitted to a position in Norwich postoffice as a clerk. Forty years have since intervened and the asso- ciation remains unbroken. Mr. Fletcher has ad- vanced from post to post until reaching the present position, superintendent of mails. He has seen the
office grow from a small affair, has seen administra- tions and postmasters come and go, but under all administrations and postmasters, and under con- stantly improving conditions, he has kept on in the even tenor of his way, performing his duties effi- ciently and to the satisfaction of those he serves. He is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Park Congregational Church.
Mr. Fletcher married, December 11, 1892, Eliza- beth Ida Ogden, daughter of Jolin R. and Elizabeth (Stoner) Ogden. Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher are the par- ents of three children:
I. Robert Ogden Fletcher, born August 8, 1893; sergeant major, 56th Artillery Regiment. The fol- lowing appeared in one of the local newspapers: "For the second time this week the flag on the City Hall and the flag on Chelsea Parade will fly at half mast, the tribute to Sergeant Robert O. Fletcher, of this city, sergeant major of the 56th Artillery Regi- ment, who was killed on August 15, 1918, in action, while convoying supplies. Sergeant Fletcher was a native of this city and was twenty-five on the 8th of August. He attended the Falls School, graduated from Norwich Free Academy, class of 1912. He was prominent in athletics in school, and was captain of the baseball team in his graduating year. Immedi- ately after graduation he entered the office of the Hopkins and Allen Arms Company, and from there came to the 'Bulletin' to fill the position of sporting editor, which he did with marked ability for several years, and it was while in this position that he heard the call of his country, and enlisted in the Third Company, Coast Artillery, in the carly spring of 1917. He became company clerk, and went to Fort Wright at Fisher's Island, when the company trans- ferred there for training in July, 1917. When the 56th Artillery Regiment was formed from the Con- necticut Coast Artillery men, he became regimental supply sergeant, and left with the company for over- seas duty on March 20, 1918, and while over there was promoted to sergeant-major. Sergeant Fletcher was one of the thousands of splendid, stalwart, six- foot Americans who swung along the French high- ways, hailed as saviors of their native country by the aged French men and women. His friends and business associates recall with pride his earnest, manly desire to do his whole part, the interest he took in perfecting himself in soldierly efficiency from the moment of his enlistment, and the eagerness with which he looked forward to the time when he could serve at the front. He was a friend and fav- orite of all with whom he was associated in business or social relations, and his love is one that will be long felt. He was a member of Park Congregational Church, Norwich Lodge, No. 430, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and Union Lodge, No. 31, Free and Accepted Masons of New London, Con- necticut, in which he was raised shortly before leav- ing Fisher's Island for overseas. As a tribute to him the American Legion Post, No. 4, has named it the Robert O. Fletcher Post. He is survived by a sister, Hazel Louise, and a brother, William L. Fletcher, Jr., who enlisted in the Tank Corps, and was over-
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John MBlackman
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seas from September to March. Mr. Robert served four years as a first baseman with the Norwich Free Academy team. His graduating class of 1912 gave a fund of $200 to the Academy in memory of their classmates, Charles Willey and Robert Fletcher. And the interest from same fund was to be used to provide for future victory on the athletic field each year. There have been memorial trees planted from his church (Park Church), and the manager of the Bulletin Company has planted a memorial tree with a tablet hung to it, showing his birth and how he met liis fatal wounds.
2. William Leslie Fletcher, Jr., born October 21, 1897. At the age of twenty years, March 29, 1918, he enlisted in the United States Tank Corps, at New York City, going from there to Fort Slocum, New York. Later he was transferred to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for training, being assigned to Com- pany B, 326th Battalion. From Gettysburg he went to Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, in August, 1918, and in September went overseas, landing first in Liverpool, England, going by rail to Southampton, where his corps went across the channel during the night, touching at Cherbourg, where for two weeks they were in a rest camp. From Cherbourg his battalion headed north for the tank training center at Bourg, five miles west of Langres. He was stationed here until after the armistice. On December 2, 1918, he was transferred to Company C, 303rd Battalion, Tank Corps, at Nenvy-Pailloux. While at the latter place he was taken sick and transferred to Base Hospital No. 63, at Chateauroux, but later assigned back to his company, one day before they left France for home. His company came over on the French liner "Patricia," landing in New York, March 17, 1919. He was discharged at Camp Meade, Maryland, May 1, 1919, as private, first class.
3. Hazel Louise Fletcher, born June 21, 1899; re- sides with her parents.
FRANK HERBERT MALLOY-With broad ex- perience in his chosen field of activity, Mr. Malloy, of Baltic, New London county, Connecticut, is filling the responsible position of superintendent of the large plant of the Shetucket Worsted Mills.
Mr. Malloy is a son of James and Lillian (Hunt) Malloy. His father was born in Lowell, Massachu- setts, and educated in the public schools of that city. About 1875, at the age of seventeen years, he became a fireman on the Boston & Maine railroad. Working up to the position of engineer, he served in that ca- pacity until the time of his death, which occurred in Lowell, in February, 1891. His wife, who was born in Portland, Maine, still resides in Lowell. They were the parents of five children: Lena Maud, born in Lowell, now the wife of Frank Wright; Annie May, the wife of Fred Miller; Alice, the wife of Bur- ton Stockham; Frank H., whose name heads this review; and Mabel, who resides with her sister Alice, in Providence.
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