USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 21
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 21
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In 1862, Mr. Treat was again elected by the Republican party to the lower house of the State Legislature, and served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a post which entitled him to the leadership of the House, and in which he did much to give direction and form to important legislative action. During the same session, on report of the Joint Standing Committee on Banks, he was appointed Statc Director for the Bridgeport Bank. The finances of the country needed the wisest, ablest, boldest talent, in order to give efficient support to the Government in its life-and-death struggle with secession and slavery. That talent came to the surface readily, both in bank parlors and in legislative halls, in which were many busy actors who, with Mr. Treat, could honestly affirm at the close of each session : " We shall retire from this hall with the proud consciousness that we have not sought our own personal advantage or aggrandizement, but have sought to deserve well of our fellow-citizens and of the Republic." His constituents evidently enter- taincd the same conviction, for they returned him to the same post in 1869. Onc mcasure adopted by the Legislature of 1862 rcccived the hearty approval and co- operation of Mr. Trcat. It was the act cnabling citizen soldiers, then serving in the field, to vote in the State elections. In this just provision, as in all other sal- utary legislation in which the excellent and eminent War Governor of Connecticut, William A. Buckingham, was specially interested, the latter received ardent and judi- cious assistance from the cnergetie and influential representative of Bridgeport. Frec institutions were honored by their advocacy, and the shaking pillars of the great Republic strengthened by the sturdy support of their shoulders.
Throughout the sessions of 1871-2-3 Mr. Treat represented the town of Wood- bridge-in which he then resided, and of which he received almost the entire vote,-
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in the lower house of the Legislature, and in the session of 1872 was chosen Speaker of the House. In the concluding proceedings Mr. English, of New Haven, pre- sented the Speaker a costly gold watch and chain, with these remarks :
" MR. SPEAKER : At the commencement of this session of the General Assembly, and upon the organization of this House of Representatives, you were elected Speaker, to preside over its deliberations. Many of us were strangers to each other at that time; but during the session, which has been one of unusual length, wc have had abundant opportunities to form more intimate acquaintances, which have ripened into lasting friendships. The session is now about to bc brought to a close. Your fellow-members could not let the opportunity pass without giving ex- pression to their feelings of regard for you, and in something more substantial than mere words. They have caused to be procured this valuable watch and chain, and requested me, on their behalf, to present it to you. Sir, please accept it, not as the reward for any particular service that you may have performed, but as an evidence of the high appreciation of the courteous, prompt, and impartial manner in which you have discharged the trying and often difficult duties of Speaker. Sir, you arc about to retire from the position which you have filled with so much credit to yourself and honor to the State, and retire to your family and home. You will carry nothing but the best of wishes for your future happiness and prosperity. That you may long live to enjoy those higher honors which I doubt not the people have in reserve for you. And when with you the voyage of life shall have endcd, you may rcach that haven at last, where the winds ceasc to blow, the waters are still, and where you will find cternal rest."
The Speaker replied :
" HONORED SIR, GENTLEMEN OF THE E ITOUSE, FRIENDS: I am indeed thricc honored-in the munificent gift that lies before mc; in that those whose lightest word of praise is priceless, arc the givers; and in that you, sir, who have so often been called to fill places of honor and trust in the State and nation --- who have thrice in obedience to the suffrages of your fellow-citizens filled the office of Gov- ernor of this State-have decmed it not unworthy of your high position to do me such honor in bestowing this princcly offering. Our acquaintance and friendship began years ago, when the strength of early manhood was upon us both-before the snowflakes that never melt, the frosts that never dissolve, had fallen so gently and yet so thickly upon our heads-and have continued to the present hour. With the deepest emotions of gratitude and pride I accept your gift, and your kindness shall remain the brightest spot on memory's page. It shall also bring unto you its own ' exceeding great reward,' for a kindly act donc warms the heart of him that con-
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ceives it, gladdens and brightens the eye of him that looks upon it, and beautifies the hand of him that performs it. Your words of approval have fallen most pleas- antly upon my ear, even as the murmur of some silvery brook in a quiet summer hour. May the future unto you be as pleasant and sunny as you have made this hour unto me. I can wish you nothing brighter, nothing better that earth can give ; and in that day when the destroying angel, standing one foot on the sea and one foot on the shore, shall swear by Him that liveth and dieth not, that time shall be no more, may you and I, sir, and each and all of us, having well spent the time allotted us here on the earth, enter into the employments and into the enjoyments of a nobler and better life, in that city which hath no need of the sun by day nor of the moon by night, for the glory of the Lord is the light thereof."
Twice during the session of 1873 Mr. Treat was called upon to aet as Speaker, pro tempore, and when, at its close, the usual complimentary resolution-thanking the Speaker, who at that epoeh was William W. Eaton, for his impartiality and ability as the presiding officer-was under discussion, he spoke as follows :
" MR. SPEAKER: I rise to seeond the resolution of my excellent friend, the hon- orable gentleman from Putnam. It has never been my good fortune to discharge a more agreeable duty, to perform so pleasant a serviee, and one that aecords so fully with my best judgment, and with every feeling of my heart. The sentiments of that resolution meet with my most eordial approval. I have known the Speaker of this House for many years. Born in humble life, without the aid which wealth and friends bring to struggling youth, he has, by the force of his own strong will, attained a position of which any man might be proud. Eminently social in private lifc, firm yet courteous in public life, eloquent in professional life, he has ever been true to his convictions, and has maintained and advocated his eherished principles just as firmly and fearlessly when deserted as when surrounded by friends. I have served with him before in assemblies like this. For the kind words he has spoken, for the earnest wishes he has uttered, for the generous acts he has done, he has my warmest thanks. For the unwavering confidence you have expressed toward me, for the efforts you have made in my behalf, you, sır, and you, gentlemen of the House, each and all, will please accept my most profound, my most grateful acknowledgments. Oh, sir, there are spots exceedingly bright along the weary waste of life.
" We pause in our labors to-day to pay our tribute of respect to personal worth and to official integrity. We gather and garner history for those who may come after us. We add our mite to the treasury of the noble names and noble deeds of those who have gone before nis. The priceless wealth of a State is its honest șons. Whose blood does not flow a little more freely in his veins as he fondly
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recalls if he may, the honorable names and honorable aets of those from whenee his blood came? If there be one of you who does not, with a glow of satisfae- tion, dwell upon the memory of his ancestors, then let him hasten to do something of which his descendants may speak with honest pride. We are doing to-day as our fathers have done before us. It is the same old story. We meet as strangers. We mingle together for a few bright days. We form pleasant friendships. We elasp the parting hand, we utter the old benediction, and we are gone. And yet it is not an old story. There is that to which may come many days, but unto which cometh old age never. Friendship, charity, and brotherly love are old as ereation, and yet new as the roses of the morning. The dew of Hermon has fallen upon the mountain-side for almost sixty centuries, and yet in this morning's sun it sparkles as brightly, it kisses as lovingly the drooping flower, as in the days of the poet-king who immortalized its matehless beauty in matehless song."
Kindly, generous, and fluent in his oratory, Mr. Treat is always heard with recep- tiveness and respeet, and finds an entrance for his foreible logic by the amenities of the manner in which it is presented. For many years he has officiated as a member of the Republican State Committee, has been delegate to the Republican State Conventions on numerous occasions, and in 1873 was strongly talked of by his politieal associates as their candidate for the Governorship of the State-an eventuality as yet by no means beyond the range of probabilities. In 1879 he was once more elected to the Conneetieut House of Representatives by his old constit- ueney at Bridgeport, to which eity he had returned, and in which, as elsewhere, he has been fully occupied with professional practice-praetiee in which he has been remarkably successful. In this last period of legislative activity he aeted as ehair- man of the Committee on Railroads.
In the public affairs of the city of Bridgeport Mr. Treat has always taken an active and influential share, and for many years has been a director of the old Bridgeport Bank, and of the Town Library. For twenty years he was a director of the Bridgeport Gas Light Company, of whose capital stoek he is a large owner, and of which he has been the president sinec 1868.
On the 15th of December, 1869, Mr. Treat was married to Mary A., only daughter of Treat Clark, of Woodbridge, Conn. One daughter, Mary Clark, born January 28th, 1872, is the issue of the union.
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ILBERT, WILLIAM L., of Winsted, Conn. Born in Litchfield, Litchfield County, Conn., December 30th, 1806. His father, James Gilbert, was born in the same State, in the town of Woodbridge. He was by occupation a farmer, and died in Litchfield in the year 1840. His mother, Abigail Kin- ney, was born in Washington, in the same county, and died in Winsted in the year 1873, at the advanced age of ninety-four years.
The first twenty-two years of his life he passed chiefly at home, employed during the summer months in labor with his father on the farm, and in winter in such district or academy schools as the country at that time furnished.
The domestic life of Mr. Gilbert may be briefly told. He was married in the year 1835 to Clarinda K. Hine, of Washington, Conn., who died in the year 1874. The fruits of this marriage were three children, all of whom died previous to 1860. He was married to his present wife, Anna E. Westcott, of New London, Conn., in the year 1876. As a citizen, although never a violent political partisan; he has always acted with the Republican party, and has been twice elected to represent that party in the Legislature of the State, and was largely instrumental during his first term of gaining from that body the charter of the Winsted Bank, and in his second, that of the Connecticut Western Railroad.
But the sphere in which Mr. Gilbert is most widely known and respected, is as a man of business. It may be instructive to notice those personal characteristics of his to which he is indebted for eminent success. Endowed by nature with an excel- lent constitution, capable of the most intense and protracted exertion, with good habits and correct moral principles inculcated by his parents, Mr. Gilbert has brought to the business of his life great concentration, an indomitable will, unwearied industry, strict integrity, and good common-sense. To these qualities he owes his success, rather than to exceptional advantages of birth, wealth, friends, or fickle fortune.
Mr. Gilbert commenced business soon after reaching his majority, without a dollar which he could call his own, or a single relative or friend on whom he could call for pecuniary aid. In the year 1828, at the age of twenty-two years, he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, George Marsh, for the manufacture of clocks. His contribution to the capital invested in the firm was three hundred dollars, all of which was borrowed. With these small means the firm commenced busi- ness in the town of Bristol, Conn. For the want of capital they began by making only parts of clocks for the older firm of Jerome & Darrow. This fraternal association continued three years, during which, by industry and economy, the means of these young men had been so far improved, and by close appli- cation to business so much experience gained, that they thought themselves com- petent to the manufacture of a whole clock. With these larger views the firm
Mom & Gilbert
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removed to the adjoining town of Farmington, where they became regular eloek manufacturers, and prosecuted the business successfully until the fall of 1835, when Mr. Gilbert returned to Bristol and resumed the same business in a new firm, composed of Birge, Gilbert & Co. This firm continued to prosper until 1839, when he became a member of the firm of Jerome, Gilbert, Grant & Co. This last was only a temporary arrangement, and in 1841 Mr. Gilbert removed to Winsted, purchased a eloek factory, and formed a partnership with Lucius Clark and Ezra Baldwin. At the end of four years he bought out the interests of his partners and conducted the business three years alone, when Clark repurchased an interest, forming the firm of Gilbert & Clark, which continued three years. In 1851 Isaac B. Woodruff was admitted into the partnership, and has continued a member of the firm until the present time. From the year 1857 to 1862 they were associated in manufacturing elocks in Ansonia, Conn., in addition to the business continued in Winsted. They were also extensively engaged in the manu- facture of cloek movements in the city of Williamsburg, N. Y., from 1863 to 1871.
In the year 1866 he organized a joint stock company, called the Gilbert Manu- facturing Company, for the prosecution of the business in Winsted. The business of Mr. Gilbert had now become large, increasing, and prosperous, and continued so until 1871, at which date the factory buildings were consumed by fire. Mr. Gilbert then obtained a special charter of the State for the manufacture of clocks, under the name of Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Company. The factories were rebuilt on a much larger scale, better adapted to their object, and containing all those improve- ments suggested by long experience in the business. The buildings were of brick, built in the most substantial manner, four stories high, and between three and four hundred feet in length, furnished with the best machinery known, and accommo- dating four hundred operatives. It is one of the largest and best factories for the manufacture of clocks in the State. Mr. Gilbert has held the presidency of the company from the beginning. It has had a continued prosperity, even through all those financial revulsions preceding the year 1857, which, with a single exception, proved fatal to every rival firm in the State.
Since he commenced the manufacture of clocks, the material of which they are made has been changed from wood to brass; the clock and the processes of its manufacture have been simplified, the clock greatly improved, the cost of manufacture reduced, and the artiele sold for one fourth of its former price. The varieties now made are almost innumerable, and the elocks are sent to all quarters of the globe. Mr. Gilbert has twice visited the other continent, in the interest of the business which has thus been enlarged, and was one of the first to open a foreign market for Ameri- can elocks. He has been engaged in a great number of other kinds of manufacturing business in various places, most of which have proved successful.
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In 1867 Mr. Gilbert formed a partnership with Henry Gay, late president of the Winsted Bank, under the name of Gilbert & Gay, and immediately commenced business in the building formerly occupied by the old bank. They carried on a large and successful general banking business, also making loans on real estate in the West to a very large extent.
They continued in that location until 1874, when Mr. Gilbert was elected president, and Henry Gay cashier, of the Hurlbut National Bank. They then stopped their general banking business, and removed their office to the Hurlbut National Bank, where they still continue the business of loaning money at the West.
Soon after Mr. Gilbert embarked in the banking business, came up the project of building a railroad from Hartford west to the New York State line at Millerton- an undertaking of no small magnitude. Mr. Gilbert entered into the work with his accustomed energy and persistence, and to his ability and capital is due in great measure the successful completion of the road, which, although not as yet a paying investment, has been a great advantage to the towns in western Connecticut.
The earnest endeavor of Mr. Gilbert to promote every honorable enterprise has always been marked and noted, and with his clear head and unwavering purpose, together with his ample means, he has done his full share in building up the thriving community in which he has so long resided. At seventy-four years of age, more than half a century of which has been devoted to an intensely active business life, Mr. Gilbert has survived most of his early competitors, and by his own unaided efforts fairly carned a place among the foremost business men of the State. Unaided, he still performs acceptably the duties of treasurer and director of the Connecticut Western Railroad, president of the Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Company, and president of the Hurlbut National Bank, in addition to the judicious care of his own large estate. His constitution still unimpaired, vigorous health and full possession of all his mental faculties encourage the hope that he may still enjoy many years of active, useful, and beneficent life.
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REWSTER, LYMAN DENISON, of Danbury, Conn. Born in Salisbury, Conn., July 31st, 1832. He is the son of Daniel and Harriet Averill Brewster. His grandfather, Daniel Brewster, Sr., was born in 1730, at Preston, Conn., and was the great-grandson of Jonathan Brewster, eldest son of " Elder William Brewster," the " Chief of the Pilgrims."
Few, indeed none, of his contemporary statesmen can boast a more distin- guished and heroic ancestor. William Brewster was born of an ancient family, educated at the University of Cambridge, acquainted with the splendid court of Queen Elizabeth, and conversant with public affairs. He was the intimate and confidential servant and friend of William Davison, the trusted secretary of the sovereign; and when his patron was disgraced and wickedly imprisoned in the Tower of London, Brewster " remaincd with him, rendering many faithful offices of service in the time of his troubles." Two years after the fall of Davison, Brewster-who was then about twenty-three years of age-went to reside with his father at the stately old manor- house of Scrooby, near the northern boundary of Nottinghamshire. There he acted for his infirm old father, who held an office in the service of the Queen. Five years after that he was himself the postmaster at Scrooby, and lived "in good es- teem among his friends and the gentlemen of those parts, especially the godly and religious." He was an earnest, godly man, had accepted Puritan views at the uni- versity, and did much for the promotion of religion in his own locality. He was cspecially active in securing the services of good prcachers, and earncd the praise that Paul gave to some of his converts, by giving beyond the measure of his ability for their support.
In 1607 the people who were intent upon "the positive and practical part of divine institutions" were organized into "two distinct bodies or churches," of which onc mct in the house of William Brewster. Dr. Bacon, in his Genesis of the New England Churches, p. 201, remarks, with a terseness and emphasis justified by thc subsequent events of history, " There was the germ of New England." There the simple, heroic, God-fearing Puritans of North Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire found it convenient to assemble; and therc Brewster, according to Bradford's testi- mony, "with great love entertaincd them when they came, making provision for them to his great charge," and " continucd so to do whilst they could stay in England." " It cannot be demonstrated," writes Dr. H. M. Dexter in his Congregationalism, as Seen in Its Literature, p. 379; " but to my mind the probability is so great as almost to amount to a certainty, that the original covenanting together of this second com- pany-to bc the Mayflower Church-was in this little chapel of the Archbishop of York, some of the rudely carved oak beams of whose roof still humbly survive upon the premises-thus again propounding Samson's riddle : 'Out of the cater came meate, and out of the strong came sweetnesse."
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When the church at Serooby could no longer meet on the Lord's Day for the worship of God, they solemnly resolved, as a church, to emigrate to Holland- where there was "a church without a bishop, and a state without a king." Brew- ster resigned his office, collected his chattels, bade farewell to Serooby, and took ship at Boston, with a large company of friends, to sail for Holland. But the knavish, unprincipled shipmaster betrayed them to the persecuting eivil authorities They were arrested, imprisoned, and Brewster, with six others, was bound over for trial and detained in prison, while the rest were discharged. How long they remained in jail is not precisely aseertained. No sooner were they at liberty than a second attempt was made to reach Holland, some six months afterward. This also failed. But still they persevered, and one by one, or in families, they all got over the sea into Holland, "and met together again with no small rejoicing."
From Amsterdam they removed to Leyden, and gained a competent livelihood by means of hard and continual labor. " Brewster, the scholar and courtier, who had . formerly passed through the cities of Holland as an attache of the English embassy, ' suffered much hardship after he had spent the most of his means, having a great charge and many children.'" Yet he was always cheerful and contented. He taught English to students in the university, "both Danes and Germans," for whom he seems to have drawn up an English grammar in Latin. He also established a print- ing office, where books were printed in Latin and in English. In Leyden, he acted as one of the elders of the Church, which was organized with the most serupulous regard to the letter and spirit of the Holy Scriptures.
In 1617 the Pilgrims discussed the project of removal to the New World, and in 1618 Brewster and Cushman secretly repaired to London to negotiate in behalf of the Church with the Virginia Company. In 1619 it was decided that the pioneers in the daring enterprise should be accompanied by ruling-elder Brewster, the pas- tor's colleague in the oversight of the flock. On July. 22d, 1620, the pioneer Pilgrims embarked on board the Speedwell, at Delft-Haven, for Southampton, in their native land ; whenee they were to sail for America. The Speedwell was a minute vessel of only sixty tons, and was designed to serve as a tender to the MAY- FLOWER, a ship of a hundred and eighty tons. On the 15th of August, 1620, the two insignificant vessels sailed from Southampton with a hundred and twenty pas- sengers, and all the material needful for founding a colony in the wilderness. It was a "day of small things" for the Pilgrims. But in those small things were the germs of mighty religious and political revolutions that were to change the face of Christendom, and hasten the evangelization of the human race.
On board the Mayflower the Church worshipped under the presidency of its teaching and ruling elder, William Brewster; and at Christmas landed on Plymouth
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Rock-the American Mecca. In the privations, hardships, sicknesses, and deaths which followed disembarkation, William Brewster proved himself to be a true follower of the Lord who washed His disciples' feet. Gravest and stateliest of all his com- pany, Elder Brewster was revered and loved by all who knew him. In 1623 hc was rejoined by two of his daughters, who had been left behind in Holland. For nine years he was practically the pastor as well as the teacher of "the church in the wilderness." When he died it was in green and flourishing age, full of honors, and enriched by the reverence, love, and trust of multitudes in both hemispheres. It is not too much to add that William Brewster's head and heart have impressed their characteristics upon the American people as profoundly, perhaps, though not as visibly, as those of George Washington.
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