USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 35
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 35
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Public honors were rapidly followed by deep family afflictions. The Admiral's two youngest daughters died within ten days of each other. The first of these was a little blind girl whom he regarded with peculiar tenderness, and for whom he always asked first when he came into the house, saying, " Where is my little Emily ?" The letters of sympathy which came from men overwhelmed with great public cares did equal honor to the recipient and to their own kindness of heart.
During the close of 1862, and the beginning of 1863, Admiral Foote resided, with his family, in Washington. There he threw himself into the duties of his new office with the same ardor that had characterized his entire official life. It was his habit to carry through his measures at any cost, although his old Connecticut blood prompted him to the utmost practical economy. His interest in all things germane to the public weal never flagged. "He gave advice in regard to the management of naval academics; he was active in his duties as President of the Connecticut Soldiers' Aid Society ; he pressed his matters of naval reform, and temperance, and
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the better observance of the Lord's Day, with his usual persistency; he found time and heart to write in a playful strain to his few old friends and his relatives who thoroughly knew him ; but his mind was, for the most part, borne down with sorrow and care, though always hopeful for the country."
The failure of Admiral Dupont to storm the defences of Charleston harbor in 1863 evoked a cry from the people, and a demand from the Government, that Andrew Hull Foote should take command of the baffled flect, and lead it on to victory. The fate of the Republic seemed to depend upon him; and, notwithstand- ing his physical unfitness, he must go. He accepted the onerous duty, sent his family home to New Haven, and wrote :- " I want as soon as possible to be afloat again, and there remain till we, under God, crush this atrocious rebellion."
On the 4th of June, 1863, he was detached from his position, and appointed to Admiral Dupont's place as commander of the South Atlantic blockading squad- ron. Captain Simpson, one of his dearest friends, who knew him best, declared that " he would take Fort Sumter or go to the bottom." He was not suffered to make the attempt. Ill beyond recovery, he would sometimes sink into his chair with an air of complete lassitude, and exclaim, with his hands pressed to his head, " Rest- oh, for rest !" Still, his indomitable spirit held up his failing physical energies. At New York, in company with Admiral Gregory, he inspected monitors under process of construction, attended to numerous visitors, and after incessant occupation all day, he started at night for Washington, transacted business in that place all the following day, and returned to New York the same night. This was burning life's decreasing taper at both ends, and also putting a fire into the middle. Harassing excitements and anxieties brought on an aggravation of his disease, which was Bright's disease of the kidneys. He felt that the order to " cast off moorings" had come to him from the highest authority. "My disease is fatal," he remarked, " but I am prepared to meet death in this way, if God has so ordered it." His pastor, the Rev. Dr. Budington, wrote :- " His life, the mainspring of which was a constant activity in the service of God and country, was closing in the energetic performance of his last commission-to dic." He died as he lived-manfully, affec- tionately, happily. "God is dealing gently with me," he said. " He may bring dark hours, but thus far it grows brighter and brighter with me." He died on Friday night, June 26th, 1863, at the comparatively early age of fifty-six. Toil, anxiety, and care were ended. The God of peace, as well as the God of battles, had given his beloved sleep.
Admiral Foote's death was a shock to the nation. All felt that it was the death of the greatest man who had yet fallen. Elaborate eulogies of the deceased filled the columns of the newspaper press, the flags of all naval vessels were hoisted
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at half-mast, and thirteen guns were fired at meridian of the day following the receipt of the general order of Secretary Welles that announced his death. The universal grief was akin to that exhibited when the electric wire flashed far and wide throughout the land the tidings of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The highest professional honors were paid to his memory at the funeral, and the American nation mourned the loss of one of its greatest sons. Among them all, none surpassed in moral force, in immutable resolution to pursue the right, in invincible loyalty to Christ and country-the lamented Admiral.
He was an orthodox Christian in faith, in word, in deed. After the capture of Fort Henry he wrote to his wife that "he had agonized in prayer for victory." Pious, philanthropic, and inexorably moral, he was also open, cordial, and confiding. Social in temperament, he was usually full of hilarious life. He loved praise and distinction, commanded the implicit respect and obedience of his men, felt and exemplified the keenest interest in their welfare, was a true patriot, and a typical American sailor. Duty was the grandest and most meaningful word in the vocabu- lary to him, and to few, if any, public servants has the American people ever said "well done" with greater propriety and justice than to Connecticut's heroic sailor son and hero, ANDREW HULL FOOTE.
OWARD, CHAUNCEY, of Coventry, Comptroller of the State of Connecti- - cut. Born in Coventry, April 21st, 1812. His father John Howard, was a physician in the same town, as was also his grandfather, Nathan Howard, who removed thither from Hampton, Conn. He is connected through his paternal grandmother, Joanna, with one of the most heroic names associated with the history of the American Revolution. She was the sister of Lieutenant Nathan Hale, "the martyr spy," who was exccuted at the City of New York, in the memorable ycar, 1776; and who dicd regretting that he had " but one life to losc in the service of his country."
After appropriating all that the educational institutions of his native town were able to supply, Chauncey Howard matriculated at Amherst College in 1830. Among his classmates were Henry Ward Beechcr, and several others who have since risen to conspicuity and influence in different walks of life. He did not graduate with
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Chauncey Howard,
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them, but with the class of 1835, for the reason that hc had spent one year of the four employed by them in collegiate studies, in teaching.
Provided with his diploma, and with the practical knowledge won by educa- tional labor, hc next decided to adopt the profession of law, and qualified himself for its practice by diligent and comprehensive studies in the office of the late Judge William W. Ellsworth. Admitted to the Bar in 1839, he prosecuted thc ordinary duties of a legal practitioner until 1841, when he was chosen Clerk of the Superior Court :- a position which he held uninterruptedly for nearly twenty- five years, and from which he voluntarily retired in 1873. His services in that responsible post gave universal satisfaction, and were rewarded by the grateful praise of all who had been thrown into contact with him.
After his retirement, Mr. Howard returned to his native town, in which hc designed to spend the residuc of his years. But, as will appear, the citizens of the State determined differently, by electing him to the important office that he now fills. While Clerk of the Superior Court, he was called at intervals to other positions of trust and honor. In 1847, he was sent as Representative from Hart- ford to the lower branch of the State Legislature; and in 1875 was elected to the State Senatc from the Twenty-first District. In 1877 he served a second term in the House, to which he had been clected by the Republicans of Coventry. At another period, Mr. Howard rendered excellent service in the relation of treasurer to the town and city of Hartford. Legal, legislative, and fiscal experiences have bcen diversified by occasional journalistic and literary labor. Soon after the estab- lishment of the Hartford Daily Courant, he was editorially connected with that paper for some time.
In 1879 Mr. Howard assumed the duties of Comptroller of Public Accounts, having been elected thereto on the Republican ticket. Unsolicited and unexpected, the nomination for his onerous and responsible office sought his acceptance, because those who made the nomination judged him to bc the fittest man to occupy the place. Nor has their judgment been impeached by the results. The intelligence, fidelity, and dignity with which the incumbent has fulfilled his duties for more than a ycar, justify the instinctive and reasonable choice of his constituents. They are the simple characteristics which have distinguished his long and useful public life. As comptroller, his duties have been largely increased by the occupation of the new Capitol, of which he is the custodian, and by the improvement of the Capitol grounds, which proceeds under his supervision.
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ILES, FREDERICK, of Chapinville, Conn., was born at Goshen, Litehfield County, Conn., December 19th, 1815. His father, Augustus Miles, was a native of the same county, and represented the town of Goshen in the Legislature for several years, both in the House and Senate. The subject, after receiving an academical education, engaged in mereantile pursuits in Goshen until 1857, when he removed to Chapinville, in Salisbury, and engaged in the manufacture of iron, which he has carried on up to the present time. In November, 1877, Mr. Miles was elected to the State Senate for a term of two years, but resigned in February, 1879, having been elected to the Forty-sixth Congress on the Republican ticket, receiving 14,109 votes, against 12,930 votes for F. W. Bruggerhoff. This was the first time this Congressional district had been carried by any Re- publican. In 1880, Mr. Miles was re-elected to the same office, his competitor being Geo. W. Peet, of Canaan.
UTLER, JOHN S., M.D., of Hartford. Born in Northampton, Mass., October 12, 1803. His father, Daniel Butler, was a merchant there, and a native of Hartford, Connecticut. His mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Simpkins, was a native of Boston. His preparatory education was received in the Hawley Grammer School, at Northampton, and in the Hadley Academy, at Hadley, Mass. In 1821 he matriculated at Yale College, and graduated therefrom with the class of 1825. Preferring to identify himself with the medical fraternity, he began his studies for future professional life in the office of Drs. Hunt and Barrett at Northampton. In 1826 he attended the course of lectures in the Harvard Medical College, Boston, and afterward repaired to the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, passed through the regular courses of instruction, received his diploma in the autumn of 1828, and spent the year following in the same city, as a resident graduate.
In May, 1829, Dr. Butler settled in Woreester, Mass., and assiduously devoted himself to professional practice in that town for the ensuing ten years. During that period he was a frequent visitor to the Worcester Lunatic Asylum, which was then under the care of the celebrated Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, and thus became particularly interested in Mental Pathology. Insanity-its nature, its causes, and its
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cure-was made a subject of thorough and exhaustive study. In the advanced ideas of Dr. Woodward, as to the best methods of treating the malady, he fully and intelligently sympathized.
In 1839 Dr. Butler was chosen superintendent of the Boston Lunatic Hospital, and also physician and surgeon to the Public Institutions of South Boston, and discharged the duties of those offices until the fall of 1842. The great success which erowned his labors, and the efficacy of his peculiar methods of treatment, are forcibly described in an article on Insanity in Massachusetts, published in the North American Review, of January, 1843. The writer says: "We select for description the Lunatic Hospital, at South Boston, as we know it under the excel- lent management of Dr. Butler, because its patients are wholly of the pauper elass. The building is a commodious and pleasant one, constructed expressly for the purpose, with all the modern improvements, and pleasantly situated on the seashore, with a garden in front. Its inmates are of the worst and most helpless class of cases. They were the raving madmen, and the gibbering idiots, whom-in the language of the Inspectors of Prisons for Suffolk County-we had formerly scen " tearing their clothes amid severe cold, lacerating their bodies, contracting most filthy habits, without self-control, unable to restrain the worst feelings, endeavoring to injure those who approach them, giving vent to their irritation in the most passionate, profane, and filthy language, fearing and feared, hating and almost hated." Now they are neatly elad by day, and comfortably lodged in separate rooms by night. They walk quietly, and with self-respect, about the spacious and airy walks, or sit in listening groups around the daily papers ; or they dig in the garden, or handle edge-tools, or stroll about the neighborhood with kind and careful attendants. They attend soberly and reverently upon religious exercises, and make glad music with their united voices." This marvellous external transformation was in strict corre- spondenee with the internal changes effected by the humanc and scientific processes of Dr. Butler.
In May, 1843, he was invited to assume the superintendency, and to discharge the duties of Physician in charge, of the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane. The invitation was accepted, and, for thirty years thereafter, Dr. Butler toiled to accom- plish the objects for which the institution was established, with a zeal, wisdom, and success that left but little to be desired, and that are deserving of the warm and discriminating praise bestowed by all observers. In 1861-2 sundry needed improve- ments were recommended by, and carried out under the supervision of, Dr. Butler. The beautiful plan presented to the Committee by Olmstead and Vaux of New York was adopted, drives and walks were constructed, trees arranged in groups, tlic grounds sown with lawn grass, and the whole property thoroughly underdrained.
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A tasteful and elegant museum was erected, its sides ornamented with a choice collec- tion of engravings, and an excellent billiard table, presented by A. S. Beckwith, placed in the centre of the room. It presented a very cheerful and pleasant appearance, and naturally became both popular and useful. Musical instruments, books, pictures, and other materials for meliorating the condition of the unfortunate inmates, were also wisely and plentifully provided, and exerted most favorable influence upon the whole. Like the spacious and highly ornamental park donated to the citizens of Halifax, England, by that prince of manufacturers, Frank Crossley, and which contains a pavilion on whose portico is inseribed the appropriate motto : "The rich and poor meet together, for the Lord is the maker of them all;" so there, in the Retreat for the Insane, all the appliances and conveniences provided by the beneficence of charitable donors are open, to quote the words of Dr. Butler, "to every one of our large family capable of receiving comfort and benefit from their use." There, too, may " the rich and poor meet together;" their common humanity is proved by their community of suffering, and the broad folds of Christian charity which embraces them all." The aim of Dr. Butler was tersely expressed by his own words to the architect who reconstructed the building. It was to " kill out the Lunatic Asylum, and develop a Home"-an aim which has been emphatically and mercifully accom- plished.
On the 19th of October, 1872, he presented his resignation as superintendent, to the Directors, who, on accepting it, voted, "That in accepting Dr. Butler's resig- nation we recognize his long and faithful services to the institution, and his successful endeavors to promote its highest and best interests. We see as the result of these thirty of the best years of his life, the dreary, cold, dark, and forbidding walls of the narrow passage-ways and comfortless rooms and dormitories of 1843, converted into an institution well-nigh perfeet in all its appointments; the spacious halls and par- lors ornamented and made attractive with paintings, engravings, and other works of art ; the whole structure from foundation to ceiling reconstructed and rebuilt, placing the Retreat among the most homelike and cheerful residences of the kind any- where to be found ; libraries of books and the periodicals of the day upon the tables and in every hall; the ground and lawn, through his ageney, converted from an open field to one of the most beautiful of parks. These are among the noble monuments which he has reared and left, giving beauty, comfort, and cheerfulness to the Retreat and its surroundings, and which have and will continue to shed joy and sunshine into many a patient's sad heart, and are admired and appreciated as his work. Yet the most gratifying and glorious result of these years of toil and care is in the restoration of patients scattered up and down through the whole land, whose grateful remembrances he enjoys, and whose blessings will follow him to the
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end of his days. The Board rejoices with him in his life-work, and tenders to him their most cordial well-wishes for his future happiness and prolonged usefulness among them, and their earnest hope that the institution with which he has been so long identified may still continue to enjoy the benefit of his experience and counsel."
This resolution is worthy of insertion in this brief record of Dr. Butler's career, as being in itself a succinct and complete biography of his professional life in con- nection with the Retreat, and also as an exhibit of the relations established between himself and people of other classes by his strenuous and successful efforts to promote the recovery of the sorrowfully afflicted.
Since his retirement from the superintendency of the Retreat, Dr. Butler's ser- vices have been frequently called into requisition as consulting physician in diseases of the brain and nervous system. He was one of the thirteen Superintendents of Ameri- can Lunatic Asylums who organized the Association of Superintendents of American Lunatic Asylums in 1844, and from 1870 to 1873 was the president of that body. In 1878 he was appointed one of the members of the State Board of Health by Gov- ernor Hubbard, and was made its president. His first annual address to the Board, on the subject of State Preventive Medicine, has received warm commendations from the medical profession both at home and abroad. It has been published in pam- phlet form and widely circulated. State Preventive Medicine is the now generally accepted term for what has been known as the science of public health, or hygiene ;- " an application of the laws of philosophy and general pathology to the maintenance of the health and life of communities by means of those agencies which are in common and constant usc." After sketching the rise and progress of the science, Dr. Butler answers the question :- " What are the specific duties it prescribes ? What loss has been sustained by their neglect? What has it already done ? What more does it propose to do? And what are its reasonable possibilities in the future?" In his replies he ably presents the claims of the science to popular confidence and sup- port, not alone by his own observation and experience, but by the reliable evidence of the highest authorities as to what it has done, what it can do, and what the highest public good demands. In support of his argument he has made free use of Reports, foreign and domestic, and of other valuable documentary evidence, not generally accessible. Dr. Butler's professional standing is of the highest in his own country. In other lands he is well-known, and is an honorary member of the Medico-Psychological Association of Great Britain.
In 1832, he was married to Cordelia, daughter of Eliphalet Williams, of Boston.
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ALLUP, DAVID, of Plainfield, Conn. Ex-Lieutenant Governor of Connec- ticut. , Born in Sterling, July 11th, 1808. His first American ancestor
was Captain John Gallup, who immigrated to this country from England in 1630, and settled in Boston. Captain Gallup, besides being an enter- prising fisher and trader, was a genuine Norse viking in respect of courage and daring. His is the singular honor of having fought the first naval battle on the coast of New England-at least within authentic historical times. When sailing near Block Island in his vessel, Ye Buck, with his two sons, he discovered that the vessel of his friend, Captain John Oldham, was in possession of a swarm of Indians who had murdercd the master. Captain Gallup instantly bore down upon the ma- rauding redskins with such avenging fury that the greater part of them lcaped into the sea, and the captured craft became the prize of the valorous mariner, who, how- cvcr, was obliged to abandon her in a storm that came up.
One of Captain Gallup's sons, and probably one of the twain who took part in the reprisal on the Indians, subsequently distinguished himself in the wars with the aborigines. In the Pequot war he bore himself so bravely, as a member of the Massachusetts forces, that the General Court of Connecticut voted him a grant of 100 acres of land in 1671. He first settled at New London in 1651, but removed to Stonington in 1655, and engaged in farming. When the war with King Philip broke out he was an old man, but his military spirit was unimpaired, and he took the field at the head of the Mohegans. In storming the famous fort in the Rhode Island swamp, he was pierced by many bullets, and fell in the forefront of his command. Ifis son Benadam was one of a party of volunteers who went out of Boston in 1689 to capture a pirate sloop that had been plundering the coast. The attempt was successful, the pirate Captain was slain, Gallup took command, and brought the remainder of the miscrcants into port.
Five men, named John Gallup, followed cach other in linc of direct descent. A brother of the third John Gallup was named Nathaniel, and his son John became the grandfather of Lieutenant Governor Gallup, and married a lineal de- scendant of Captain John Alden, whosc courtship of Priscilla Mullens is celebrated in one of Longfellow's most exquisite poems. Governor Gallup's mother, née Nancy Jaques, was born in Rhode Island. On both sides the house, and particularly on the paternal, hc is connected with some of the oldest and most respectable families in Eastern Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
In carly life Mr. Gallup settled as a farmer at Plainfield, but his natural apti- tudc for affairs and his public spirit soon brought him under general notice, and occasioned his fellow citizens to demand his services in various public departments. For twenty-three years he was Judge of Probate in the Plainfield district, and filled
Hanid Gallup
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successively almost every local office in the town. In IS41 he was chosen as its representative to the General Assembly, and also served in that capacity in 1850. In 1862 he was again elected to the lower house of the Connecticut Legislature, and served for five successive terms. In 1866 he was honored by election to the Speakership of the House. During his legislative service he frequently officiated as Chairman of the Committee on Finance, and also of the Committee on Railroads. In 1869 he was elected to the State Senate, from the thirteenth district, and served as President, pro tempore, of the Senate. Upon the adjournment of that body in the same year, Francis Wayland, the Lieutenant-Governor of the State, went to Europe, and Judge Gallup discharged the duties of that functionary for the remain- der of his term. In 1877 he again represented Plainfield in the House, for the eighth time.
Governor Gallup has been long and honorably identified with banking, and other financial business. For many years he was a director, and for two years the President, of the Quinnebaug Bank of Norwich, which became a national bank in 1853. It enjoys the distinction of being the first bank in eastern Connecticut that adopted the national bank system. For more than twenty years he has been a director of the Norwich Saving Society, still holds his seat at the board, and is one of the vice-presidents of the institution. Of the Hartford Trust Company-the first Safety Deposit company organized in Connecticut-he is one of the directors and originators, and indeed the prime mover. He was also one of the organizers of the Orient Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, and has been a member of its board of direction, and also of its finance committee from the date of its establishment. His large business interests oblige him to spend much of his time at the capital. He was instrumental in the removal of the Gatling Gun Company's works from In- dianapolis to Hartford, and is vice-president of that celebrated corporation at the pres- ent time. In Cincinnati, as well as in Hartford, he possesses large real estate interests.
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