USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 31
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 31
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Dr. Knight was a rarely noble man, a product of the times, and one eminently adapted to meet the needs of the times. The objects of his special sympathy had suffered for centuries as if they had committed the greatest crimes. "In 1826 a young clergyman, rendered insane by over-work, was found in the Bridewell Prison of New York, herded with ruffians and murderers. At that time there were in the prisons of Massachusetts thirty lunatics." First Century of the Republic, p. 468. In New Hampshire, in 1834, out of 189 lunatics in the State, 76 were kept in prison and 34 in alms-houses. In 1833 it was estimated that there were 2400 lunatics
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confined in jails and prisons of the United States. The treatment received in these establishments usually extinguished all hope of improvement. The keepers-often hard and cruel-neither understood the needs of their unfortunate wards, nor attempt- ed to regulate their often disgusting habits, nor kept their bodies clean, nor furnished the simple comforts which mitigate the power of disease, nor ministered in any way to the diseased or defective mind. The horrors of county poor-houses and penitentiaries were unreportable. In some sections of the United States they are still unfit for publication, and brand our boasted civilization with infamy and shame. The first condition of reform and humane treatment in regard to "defectives," Dr. Knight clearly perceived to be classification; that they ought to be segregated from other classes of individuals dependent upon the public treasury, placed in insti- tutions by themselves, and subjected to the influences of education, industry, and religion. His daring and courageous experiment more than fulfilled the expectations of himself and friends. A considerable number of his patients were fitted for society, and a much larger number advanced in self-control, and the use of their faculties. Through his labors, the sense of human rights and of the brotherhood of humanity has more profoundly penetrated the people of the State, while they have been taught the best known methods of preventing the social evils with which Christian and heathen civilization alike seem hitherto to have been unable to cope.
The institution founded by Dr. Knight, at Salisbury, remained under his indi- vidual control for several years, and then passed under the auspices of a corporation, of which he was the practical head, and which has since received a certain degree of patronage and sustentation from the State. The scientific Christian treatment of the feeble-minded was the work to which his life was particularly devoted. To it he gave the best of his thought, and the ripest and strongest years of his life. He was master of all the science and literature appertaining to his specialty, rose to the eminence of an acknowledged leading authority in that department, and retained his reputation, with constant increase, to the day of his death.
Dr. Knight departed this life on the 22d of January, 1880; worn out by cease- less thought and incessant endeavor to improve the condition of the sorrowful and suffering class to whose needs hc immediately and skilfully administered. His contributions to the issues of the medical press were mainly on abnormal psychology, and are highly valued by the members of the profession at large, and more particu- larly by that patient and heroic branch of it that is interested in the same class of studies and procedures with himself. A true Christian, a genuine philanthropist, a distinguished man of science, a patriotic citizen, and a friend that was "true as steel," his memory will be fragrant in his native State when the excellent establish- ment he founded has crumbled into dust. He was a member of the various Medical
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Societies of Connecticut, and had received sundry honorary degrecs from the State Medical Societies of New York and California. He was also a permanent member of the American Medical Association, and an associate member of the New England Psychological Society.
Dr. Knight was married in 1850, to Mary Fitch Phelps, of Norfolk, Conn. Two sons were the issue of their union. Both are medical men, and both are engaged in the same specific professional pursuits as their honored father. Dr. George H. Knight is now in charge of an institution for the feeble-minded in Minnesota ; and Dr. Robert P. Knight has succeeded to his father's honors, responsibilities, and duties at the institution in Salisbury.
ALCOTT, CHARLES D., of Talcottville, which is located upon the line of the New York and New England Railroad, in Tolland County, Conn., ten miles east from Stamford. Born September 10th, 1823, at Manchester, Hartford County, Conn. His father, Elijah Talcott, was a farmer, and had done good service as a schoolmaster. His mother, née Florilla Hubbard, of Bolton, Conn., is still living, and at the age of eighty-two is a regular attendant on the ordained means of grace.
Young Talcott received his scholastic education in his native town, and after its completion was associated with his father in agricultural pursuits until he had attained his twenty-seventh ycar. During several winter terms he was also the teacher of the district school. In 1850 he determined to change the channel of business energy, and accepted employment in the establishment of N. O. Kellogg, of Kelloggville, a manufacturer of satinets and flannels, and continued in connection with that gentleman until his decease in May, 1854. After that event Mr. Talcott, and his brother, the late Deacon H. W. Talcott, as agents, conducted the business in the interest of the Kellogg executors until January, 1856, when they purchased the entire property, and organized the firm of the Talcott Brothers.
When the new firm commenced operations, the works consisted of two small mills, containing four sets of machinery. Simultaneously with the transfer of the estate, the name of the village was changed to Tallcottville, by which title it is now designated. From 1856 to 1875 the Talcott Brothers confined their labors 1S
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exclusively to the fabrication of satinets; and, in the latter year, added the manufac- ture of union cassimeres. In October, 1869, they suffered the loss of one of their mills by ffre, and also sustained serious damage from a flood. Characteristic vigor and judicious enterprise immediately constructed fresh buildings on a larger scale, and with augmented capabilities of production. Five full sets of machinery werc established-employing about seventy-five hands. The increase in number of opera- tives from thirty in 1856 to about seventy-five in 1870 indicates the expansion of the manufacture under the force and skill of the proprietors. Their present annual production is nearly 500,000 yards.
Close attention to the pressing demands of business did not exclude, but rather included, unintermitted care for the secular and spiritual welfare of their operatives, of whom the inhabitants of the village are composed. The residences of thirty-six families employed in the mills, and almost all the other dwellings therein, were erected by them.
Intoxicating liquors are not sold in the village, neither is any one addicted to the use of them in the service of the firm. The result is that the place is wholly frec from the low resorts which work such baleful mischief in other communities. With keen, instructed insight, the Talcott Brothers perceived that personal and social morality are dependent upon normal religious relations with the Almighty Artificer of heaven and earth, and therefore in 1865-6 erected a beautiful church structure, at a cost of $33.000, for the benefit of themselves and workmen. It contains a valuable organ, commodious lecture-room, and all other material requisites for the development of pure and beneficent social life. Cultured ministerial talent has been brought into exercise, and, aided by these accessorics, has done much to raise Talcottville to the dignity of an ideal village. The expenses of the church-which is of the Congrega- tionalist order-have been and still are largely borne by the company. In 1860 they built a grist and saw mill, which they continue to operate. Connected with the other properties is a general store, and also a farm of two hundred acres, in an admirable state of cultivation.
In 1871 the firm of Talcott Brothers, as it had existed for the previous fifteen ycars, was broken up by the hand of death. In Junc of that year Horace W. Talcott was called away. His loss was severely felt. In the business he had taken charge of the manufacturing department, while his brother, Charles D. Talcott, had managed financial affairs. Horace W. Talcott was a native of Manchester, Conn., and at the age of seventeen entered into the service of the Hon. N. O. Kellogg, with whom he formed an enduring friendship, and whose influence upon him was of the most salutary and Christian description. What modern Theism terms "the ascent of life," and what ordinary Christianity speaks of as conversion, was experienced by him-
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self and his eldest brother Hart about the same time. Horace was then nineteen, and, in the thirty-one years of subsequent life, the moral ehange he then underwent beeame markedly apparent. His fine nature developed into noble Christian manhood, and endeared him to all his aequaintanees. On the 31st of October, 1848, he was chosen to the diaconate. " His consistent Christian life, his deep Christian sympathy, his large liberality, . . . his singular prudence and gentleness," and his manifest abilities, eminently fitted him for the discharge of his influential and responsible duties. He understood and prized the Sunday-school, and as a " superintendent he had few equals and still fewer superiors." Childhood and youth alike confessed his beneficent power ; and in their maturer lives his own has been essentially and fre- quently reproduced. He was an effective speaker, delighted in the true observanee of the Lord's Day, elung to biblieal doctrines with unconquerable tenacity, and was, withal, an unassuming, humble Christian. Wise, useful, evangelieal, and beloved- considerate of others' feelings and interests-a warm friend and a true "yokefellow," his end was in harmony with his life. It was peaceful, confident, and blessed. While yet in the zenith, the sun of life suddenly set in unelouded splendors. "Severe over- exertion of body and mind in his business was, unquestionably, the cause of his deeease. He never knew how to shirk either physical or mental labor ; and so, thus early, the springs of life in him failed"-a failure beyond all medical relief. His remains were committed to the earth, in presence of a large and mourning eoneourse, in the beautiful Mount Hope Cemetery, which the Talcott Brothers had set aside as " God's Aere" in 1868; and in which, during the ensuing year, they raised at a eost of $1500, and then publicly dedieated the first soldiers' monument in the State. True Christianity and genuine patriotism are ever inseparably associated as the fruitful braneh with the living vine.
Sinee the death of Deacon Horaee W. Taleott, the entire supervision of the large eoneerns of the firm has been assumed by Charles D. Talcott. "God buries His workmen, but earries on His work." A published in memoriam address, deliv- ered September 29th, 1874, at the funeral of Harriet M., wife of Deacon C. I). Talcott, by the pastor, Rev. G. A. Oviatt, reveals the fact that Mr. Taleott has taken his brother's place in the diaconate of the church. He has also succeeded. him in the superintendeney of the Sunday-sehool, and is " in labors more abundant."
The logieal deduction from Herbert Spencer's philosophical statements is that nothing so harmonizes man with his environments as living Christianity. Looking always to things eternal, he is best adapted to handle things temporal. It is in the fitness of things that the Talcott Brothers should have been indentified with the First National Bank of Rockville sinec its organization, and that Charles D. Talcott should have been the vice-president of that institution for the past five years.
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He was also for many years a director in the First National Bank of Hartford, in which the company had a large interest, which subsequently was transferred to the Putnam Fire Insurance Company, of Hartford; and in this company Mr. Talcott became a director, and held this position until the company, with others, was swept from existence through the large fires in Chicago and Portland.
In politics Mr. Talcott is an ardent supporter of the Republican party ; and · although not desirous of public life, his name was favorably mentioned for the Congressional nomination of his district in 1878.
Several nephews are at present associated with Mr. Talcott in the management of the several departments of his undertakings. H. Gardner Talcott, son of Deacon H. W. Talcott, is superintendent of the works; Morris H. Talcott is secretary and treasurer ; Samuel Talcott is manager of the store; and the farm is in charge of Lyman P., a brother of Charles D. Talcott.
Keenly alive to the advantage and necessity of educating the children of their employés, they have just completed, for school purposes, a handsome brick edifice, which for general convenience and architectural beauty is unsurpassed by any similar building in the State. They have also in contemplation the enlargement of their mills, which when completed will add materially to the wealth and importance of the place. Mr. Talcott has been married twice. Each of his wives was a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary, Mass. His first wife, whom he espoused in 1851, was Harriet, daughter of Col. Francis McLean, of Vernon, Tolland County. She died in September, 1874, with that highest of all encomiums on the lips of discreet and discerning friends-" Shc hath done what she could." Her life was one of cease- less aspiration and close approximation to the ideal of a good wife as sketched by the pen of inspiration. Mr. Talcott's second marriage was in 1876, to H. Maria Freeman, of Mansfield, Conn., a lady of fine accomplishments, and fully worthy the encomiums as passed upon her predecessor.
The work of Mr. Talcott and his associates has demonstrated the fact that the interests of capital and labor are indentical; and that in our country, where edu- cation is placed within the reach of all, labor and social dignity go hand in hand.
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ERRY, ORRIS SANFORD, of Norwalk, United States Senator from Con- necticut. Born in Bethel, Conn., August 15th, 1823. His father, Starr Ferry, was a prominent hat manufacturer in his native town. His mother's maiden name was Esther Blackman. His superior mental endowments became apparent in early youth. He was apprenticed to his father's trade, and subsequently cherished just pride in the proficiency he had attained in that calling. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Patents, in the last session of Congress he attendcd, he proved himself to be in advance of advocates and experts in thorough knowledge of that branch of manufacture. Love of books and passion for study took possession of him in early life, and he left his trade to enter upon a course of preparation for college. At the age of fourteen he was sent by his father to a preparatory school at Wilton, Conn., in 1837, and completed his preliminary studies at New Haven in 1840, under the instructions of Mr. Harvey Olmstead. Judges of character saw in him a youth of rare talents and promise. While others acquired knowledge labori- ously, to him it was merely pastime. In 1840, at the age of seventeen, he entered Yale College, and while there "his fine powers of mind soon found appreciative recognition, particularly in the department of literature and debate. He early became one of the editors of the Yale Literary Magazine; was also a successful competitor for the Townsend literary prize; and uniformly stood among the very highest in anything that required elaborate or extemporaneous address. His prestige thus gained in letters, together with his hearty social qualities and his fine personal appearance, secured for him a marked popularity, as well in circles without as within the college."
He graduated in 1844, at the age of twenty-onc, and at once commenced the study of law with Thomas B. Osborne, of Fairfield. One year later he entered the office of the late Chief Justice Thomas B. Butler, in Norwalk. In two years from that time he was admitted to the bar, and became the partner of his former preceptor. His professional associations were most fortunate. Judge Butler was remarkable for his legal learning, varied acquirements, love of justice, and generous social qualities. The bar of Fairfield and the adjoining counties had many eminent lawyers. "There were the venerable Charles Hawley, Roger Sherman Baldwin, the Ingersolls, Judges Butler, Scymour, Dutton-all learned in the mysteries of jurisprudence, the first two becoming Chief Justices of our high court. Besides these there were a score of younger men-Minor, Beardsley, Loomis, White, Carter, Beach, Harrison, and others, near his own age, of rare ability." Address of H. H. Starkweather on the Life and Character of O. S. Ferry ; Corrected and Read by James A. Garfield, p. 62. Sur- rounded by this array of cultured and disciplined talent, it speaks volumes in favor of the young practitioner's industry and talent, to state that within a few. years from his admission to the bar he had placed himself at the head of his profession.
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In 1847 he received the commission of lieutenant-colonel of the Twelfth Division of Connecticut militia; in 1849 he was appointed Judge of Probate for the District of Norwalk; in April, 1855, and again in 1856, he was elected to the State Senate ; in the same year he was appointed State Attorney for Fairfield County, and held that position until 1859, when he was elected Representative to Congress from the Fourth District of Connecticut. In Congress he served on the Committee on Revolutionary Claims, and on the Committee of Thirty-three on the Rebellious States. The House then embraced many men of marked character and ability. The great leaders of the South, schooled in politics and accustomed to rule, were there. The North also was represented by many men of great ability, but mostly new to the public service. Mr. Ferry took a conspicuous part in the discussions of the body from the very outset. His opinions and positions were identical with those of our most thoughtful and practised statesmen. His analyses of the state of the country were skilful and just ; and his views of the duty of the National Government such as were amply justified by the following march of events.
How much of the marvellous effectiveness then and afterward revealed in the service of his country had its origin in personal consecration to the highest duties and noblest ends need not be here discussed. In the autumn of 1859 he made a public profession of religion, and united with the First Congregational Church of Norwalk. That he had not done so before was not owing to real indifference or prejudice, but to the strength of his propensities to sense and sin. The power of these was broken by Divine grace, and he entered into the liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free. Thenceforward, as he once remarked to Senator Wadleigh, " he tried to live as though the next moment would usher him to the bar of the Eternal Judge." In this frame of mind he found nothing inconsistent, but everything that was congruous, with the service of his troubled and imperilled country. He was an eminently sincere man-sincere in his professions, and sincere in all his actions. This sincerity was manifest in his worship in the sanctuary; in the Sunday- school, where he was a faithful and edifying instructor; in the place of social prayer, where his voice was often heard in remarks and fervent petition ; in occasional religious lectures, wherein he used all his wealth of scriptural learning, of general and critical knowledge, to unfold and enforce the truths of Christ and of His revealed religion. Humility was as obvious as sincerity. Mind and heart and life were wholly given to Christ. The Rev. Dr. Childs, a former pastor of Senator Ferry, wrote of him in the Congregationalist, Dec. 9th, 1875: " It is true that in early life he was scep- tical; but the transition from scepticism to faith was real and thorough. His conversion was as clear as that of Paul. In the latter part of the year 1865 he delivered a course of lectures, rapidly prepared, on the evidences of Christianity.
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These, I think, indicated the working of his own mind in passing from the darkness of unbclicf to the Christian faith. The great fact on which he rested was the res- urrection of Christ. He had satisfied himself, as a lawyer, as an investigator of evidence, that, as a historic fact, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. That settled everything. 3 The Bible was inspired because it had upon it the seal of the risen Christ. Christianity, with all its facts and doctrines, was true, because it was grounded in Him who was dead and is alive again. This was to him a real and living faith. He grew in it and by it."
The state of the nation at the epoch of his entrance upon Congressional dutics was such as to call forth all the powers of his richly and rarely endowed nature. A sagacious counseller and a wise statesman, he was also an eloquent advocate and orator. The magnetic and convincing power with which he spoke placed him amongst the masters of forensic and popular address. He was uniformly equal to the emergency. No voice was more potent in rallying the masses than his. No counter force was more feared by political opponents than that which he brought to bear. Nowhere did he speak "with the counsel of the statesman and the authority of the general in war" to greater effect than in the Senate of the United States ; and nowhere was appreciation of his colossal merit more genuine and cmphatic. " During the Congressional session of 1875, at the end of a fifteen min- utes' speech on the Louisiana question, Senator Schurz remarked to a mutual friend, " Poor Ferry ! Ill and wcak as he is, he is head and shoulders above any other man in the Senate in point of intellectual force."
Mr. Ferry was pre-eminently a man of convictions. "He decided and acted according to his conception of what was clearly and broadly right. Questionable causes, as a lawyer, hc positively refused to espousc. More than once he said to those, who with much entrcaty and gold, sought to enlist his services: "No, gen- tlemen, I think you are not in the right, and I will have nothing to do with your casc." Such a man could not possibly be in any other than a resolutely hos- tile attitude to slavery and seccssion. On the 24th of February, 1861, he made an earnest spcech in Congress, in which he affirmed that the Southern leaders demanded that the Constitution be so amended as to give protection to slave property every- wherc in the United States, while they refuse to pledge that even such an amend- ment, with the repeal of the Personal Liberty Bills, should constitute a final and satisfactory adjustment. "To buy transient pcace, even if possible, at the price of this amendment, is to enact a dangerous precedent. Any new demand will be enforced by repeated secession. A compromise now is but the establishment of sedition as an elementary principle in our system. There is no course left but for the Government to vindicate its dignity by an exhibition of its strength."
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The old Puritan spirit rose in him with lion-like majesty and force, and calmly resolved on vigorous and prompt action. He served in the Cassius M. Clay Guard, which patrolled Washington day and night, in the season of alarm and peril, before the arrival of troops. In June he was commissioned as Colonel of the Fifth Con- necticut Volunteers. In March, 1862, he crossed the Potomac, at Williamsburgh, with his regiment, advanced into Virginia, drove the enemy from Winchester, and occupied the place. Soon after that he was appointed brigadier-general, and took command of the brigade under General Shields, whose division was ordered to join McDowell. In the severe and sanguinary frays that followed, General Ferry bore himself with distinguished gallantry, earned brilliant reputation by services during the war, and at its close devoted his best energies to the political and social welfare of the country he would have died to save.
When the war for the preservation of the Union ended, he resumed the practice of his profession; but in the next year, 1866, was elected to the Senate of the United States, in which he served one full term, and to which he was re-elected in 1872. He entered the Senate at the beginning of the Fortieth Congress. The problem of reconstruction was to be solved. By many he was held to be unduly conservative in his tendencies. It is true that he early favored large amnesty to those who had been in rebellion against the Government; but it is also true that he always maintained with masterly ability not only the right of the nation, but its duty to secure liberty, enfranchisement, and civil rights to those who had been slaves. He wrote considerably for the press. Many of his speeches were printed in the Congressional Globe, but otherwise he left no publications. Bribery and corruption never attempted to approach him, for sterling integrity elevated him beyond the reach of temptation. " As a Senator," said Mr. English of Connecticut, " he had a clear conception not only of the duties but the responsibilities of the position, and was fearless in the discharge of those duties." Senator Bayard, of Dela- ware, affirmed that "his censure of what he deemed corrupt, dishonest, and unworthy, was unhesitating and unsparing. And he never permitted the garb of party to shelter a guilty man from his just denunciation. For six years we served together upon the Committee on Private Land Claims, where cases involving the title or possession of extensive and valuable bodies of land came frequently before us. His intelligence, acumen, and fine legal and judicial abilities were in this way made known to me; and reports of important cases, comprehending questions of law and fact of a complicated nature, where lapse of time and fraud had combined to obscure truth and justice, were made by him, and are on the files of the Senate, in which his vigorous and instinctively honest mind dissolved all doubts, and arrayed the merits of the case in clear and orderly precision."
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