USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 9
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
Selecting the profession of law, Mr. Matteson next placed himself under instruc- tion in the law office of Wingate Hays, Esq., then United States District-Attorney for Providence, and continued there about twelve months, reading law and preparing himself for a thorough course of tuition in the Harvard Law School. This he subsequently received, and in January, 1864, was admitted to the bar. Beginning professional practice in Providence, he prosecuted his duties on individual account until 1865, when he and his old preceptor associated themselves as a law-firm under the title of Hays & Matteson. The partnership lasted until the ist of July, 1871, on which day it was dissolved, and Mr. Matteson resumed individual practice, which he pursued until his appointment to the justiciary of the State in January, 1875. The oath of office was taken in the following month, and Judge Matteson assumed the exercises of his new functions forthwith.
While in the local practice of his profession, Judge Matteson was the attorney for many corporations, and served as director and trustee of different corporate institutions in Rhode Island. As a judge his rulings and decisions bear the impress of entire impartiality, and harmonize at once with the spirit and letter of the law. Judge Matteson was married on the 22d of August, 1872, to Belle, daughter of Paul Hines, Esq,, a manufacturer resident at Warwick, Rhode Island.
74
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
M INOR, WILLIAM THOMAS, of Stamford, ex-Governor of Connecticut. Born at Stamford, Fairfield County, Conn., October 3d, 1815. His parents were Simeon Hinman and Catharine (Lockwood) Minor, of Greenwich, in the same State. His first American ancestor was Thomas Minor, who emigrated from England in the company of John Winthrop. Arriving at Stonington about the year 1646, he afterward settled, with his fellow-colonists, at Pequot in 1647. The earliest historic ancestor of the Minors in England was a loyal subject of King Edward III., named Bullman, who lived on the Mendippe Hills in Somersetshire, and who followed the occupation of a miner. About .I.D. 1350, while the sovereign was on his way to France, Bullman provided him with an escort, and received grateful recognition of his services in the change of his surname to Miner or Minor, and in the bestowment of an appropriate coat of arms.
Governor Minor, who was the second son of his parents, entered Yale College at fourteen years of age, and graduated from it with the class of 1834. The class con- tained several members who rose to distinction in professional and other walks of life. Among them were Henry C. Kingsley, the present treasurer of the university, the late Rev. William 1. Budington, D.D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., the Hon. J. W. Houston, one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of Delaware, and E. K. Foster, a leading citizen of New Haven, and for many years State's Attorney for New Haven County.
Much of what the youthful graduate had learned in school and college he suc- cessfully imparted to his pupils as a teacher, and found in that pursuit an excellent preparation for future professional and political life. His aptitude for the latter was apparent to his fellow-townsmen, who invited him to deliver the oration on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence before he had attained his majority. During the five years of his experience as teacher in his native town, he began the study of law under the guidance of his father, who was one of the principal legal practitioners in Fairfield County. Admitted to the bar 'in 1841, he commenced practice in Stamford, and successfully prosecuted its duties until July, 1864, when he was appointed Consul-General at Havana by President Lincoln.
His political career began in April, 1841, with his election by the citizens of Stamford to represent them in the lower house of the Connecticut Legislature. So satisfactory did the service rendered prove, that he -was again returned by his constituents for three consecutive years; and again in 1846, 1847, 1852, and 1868, he was sent by them to the State House of Representatives. Between the two latter years, in 1854, he was chosen to serve in the Senate of the State, and was also appointed by the Legislature of that year to the office of Judge of the County Court for Fairfield County. Promotion to the highest official position in the common-
William Tellmor
75
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
wealth speedily followed, for in 1855 he was elected Governor of Connecticut, and was again elected in 1856.
The vast immigration of foreigners to our great Republic is not an unmixed good. Evils are associated with it whose operation the wisest legislation is needed to neutralize. The social, political, and military organizations, composed exclusively of members of foreign birth, had challenged his attention, and were brought to the thoughtful notice of the Legislature in his message of 1855. " Combinations," he remarked, " of our alien population-social, political, and military-are existing all over the country. So far as the social combinations do not interfere with or disturb the rights of others, they should remain unmolested. The political organizations, so far as they are now existing, composed of naturalized citizens, cannot be disturbed ; but I do not believe that military companies, to consist entirely of foreign-born citizens, should be formed. Everything about such a company reminds its members, not that they are American citizens, but that they owe allegiance yet to their native land." In the summer of the same year, Governor Minor ascertained that there were several military companies belonging to the State militia that were exclusively com- posed of naturalized citizens, and of men who had not been naturalized at all. He therefore issued an order, under which such companies were disbanded, and their arms and equipments returned to the State Arsenal. Nor is he less philosophical and far-seeing in his opinions of the common schools of Connecticut. In them he sees the factors of true American nationality, and the surest safeguards against anarchy and bad government. Consequently, he has ever felt the deepest interest in their welfare, and has striven, both as voter and legislator, to make them ideally excellent :
Second to none, equal to the best." His is the honor of being the first Governor of Connecticut to recommend to the Legislature that the common schools should be made free to all the children of the State. " I shall cheerfully co-operate with you," he said. "in making our common schools free; for such, in my opinion, the true policy of our government requires that they should be." The result of his labors, and of the efforts of other philanthropie co-laborers, has been to raise the common schools of Connecticut to a state of efficiency that is probably not surpassed in any State, and is certainly unapproached by many of them.
Below the so-called practical philanthropies of ordinary legislation lies a wretched class, ignored by most of the governments of the world, and hitherto but slightly noticed in America. It consists of the imbecile and idiotic. Governor Minor brought these unfortunates to the attention of the Legislature, spoke of the good that had been accomplished elsewhere, and recommended that body to "take the necessary steps to ascertain the number of idiotic in the State, their present condition, the probabilities of improvement, and everything requisite to enable a future Legislature
76
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
to act wisely and humanely with reference to this class." Among the members of the House of Representatives at that time was the late Dr. Henry M. Knight, of Salisbury, who was himself most deeply interested in the mentally defective, and through whose co-operation a school for imbeciles and idiots was afterward estab- lished at Lakeville, in the town of Salisbury, Litchfield County. The institution was intrusted to the care of Dr. Knight, who was excellently qualified to undertake its charge.
Under his patient and skilful management many of the inmates have been materially improved and benefited. His death, in the winter of 1879-80, was no small loss to this deserving charity.
In July, 1864, Mr. Minor was appointed Consul-General at Havana, in the island of Cuba, by President Lincoln, and entered upon his duties in December following. The post was one of great trust and responsibility, and required unusual discretion and firmness on the part of its incumbent. Havana was the resort of a large number of persons from the rebellious Southern States, who were engaged in block- ade-running and in other undertakings injurious to the commercial and national interests of the United States. Constant care and watchfulness were needed on the part of the Consul-General to thwart their destructive plans. About the Ist of June, 1865, the formidable Confederate ram, Stonewall Jackson, entered the harbor. Friends and enemies alike supposed that she would overmatch and possibly destroy the entire United States fleet at Key West, sweep every national vessel from the Gulf of Mexico, and raise the blockade of Galveston, New Orleans, and the entire Mississippi River. Had these expectations been realized, new life would have been given to the rebellion, and the war for the preservation of the Union been indefi- nitely protracted. Mr. Minor therefore resolved to prevent her departure from the port, and through the kind offices of the Spanish Captain-General Dulce, then in command in Cuba, succeeded in the endeavor. The "ram" was surrendered to Gen- eral Dulce, and by him afterward given up to the United States Government. On the day after her surrender to that officer, a powerful armament, consisting of two monitors and five other vessels of war, commanded by Admiral Godon, steamed into the harbor, prepared to defend the interests of the United States in the event of any emergency. That fleet had been dispatched by the Government, in consequence of information forwarded by Consul-General Minor. Fortunately coercive measures had been rendered unnecessary by previous negotiations and the surrender of the vessel. Mr. Minor continued at his post until April, 1867, when he resigned, returned home, and resumed the practice of his profession. The manifold mischiefs which afterward grew out of the policy of President Andrew Johnson vindicated Mr. Minor's dissent from the same, and the consequent relinquishment of his office.
77
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOP.EDI .1.
In the spring of 1868 Mr. Minor was again elected to the Legislature, and gave his best efforts to accomplish a much needed reform. It was generally believed that electoral frauds were quite common under the system of voting then prevalent. Whether the belief were justified by facts or not, it is certain that the system then in vogue afforded facilities for fraud, that any political party might utilize so far as seemed to be desirable. That system was peculiar to Connecticut : allowing votes to be cast in any town of the State on a certificate from the town clerk of some other town that A. B. had been admitted an elector of the State, the presumption being that A. B. was the person'presenting the certificate. It was asserted that in different towns in the State large numbers of such certificates had been obtained in the names of persons deceased, and of persons removed from the State, and fraudulent votes cast upon the same.
The Legislature was so clearly convinced of the necessity of reform at this point that it appointed a joint committee, of which Governor Minor was chairman on the part of the House, to investigate the matter and report appropriate legisla- tion. The work thus confided to the committee was performed with thoroughness and zeal, and an entirely new electoral registry law, which abolished the vicious practices complained of, was drafted and reported to the Legislature. A heated con- test occurred over its passage. Those opposed to it claimed that it was a partisan measure, and intended to operate in favor of one political party. How this could be is not apparent to an outside observer. It evidently operates with equity on both parties. If any of its provisions seem to be burdensome, both parties are equally affected by them. It impartially imposes the same liabilities and obligations upon all citizens. Its working has effectually checked the old practices, which, if left un- checked, would have eaten out the very life of popular institutions. It was no small service to the latter that was rendered by the Legislature in the final adoption of the bill.
In 1868 Governor Minor was appointed by the Legislature one of the judges of the Superior Court of the State, for the term of eight years, and entered upon his duties in August of the same ;year. His judicial administration was characterized by his usual ability, diligence, fidelity, and harmony with the unwritten law of the State. The latter wisely divorces all judicial functionaries from current politics, so far as active management and advocacy are concerned. The judges of Connecticut have always voted as they pleased, but have conscientiously abstained from attend- anec on political meetings and participation in partisan politics. The action of Judge Minor was in harmony with the uniform precedent established by his predecessors and contemporaries. For reasons satisfactory to himself, he concluded not to fulfil his entire official term, and in 1873 tendered to the Legislature his resignation, to take
78
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
effect on the 15th of November of that year. Since then he has been a resident of Stamford, addicted to congenial pursuits, and wholly abstinent from legal practice.
Somewhat pertinent to Governor Minor's dissent from President Johnson's political measures is the statement of the fact that in 1864 he was a delegate at large from Connecticut to the National Republican Convention, held in Baltimore, on the 9th of June, 1864, and was also the chairman of his delegation. He then voted in favor of the renomination of Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, and of the nomination of Andrew Johnson for the Viec-Presidency. Connecticut was the first State called upon that gave a united vote to any candidate for the latter office, and its twelve votes cast unanimously in favor of the candidate from Tennes- see contributed largely to his nomination, if, indeed, it did not assure it.
Governor Minor was married in April, 1849, to Mary C., second daughter of John W. Leeds, of Stamford, a gentleman who was president of the Stamford Bank from the date of its organization in 1834, to that of his death, in March, 1878. Five children, of whom two are now living, were the fruit of their union. One of the survivors is a daughter, named Emily C., the other is a son, Charles W., who is a practising lawyer in the city of New York, where he frequently receives from the ripe knowledge and cultured judgment of Governor Minor such aid and counsel as may be pertinent to affairs in progress.
UBBARD, RICHARD DUDLEY, lawyer, of Hartford, ex-Governor of Connecticut. Born at Berlin, Conn., September 7th, 1818. The Hubbard family has been identified with the history of the State from the earliest colonial days. Few, if any, names appear more frequently or conspicuously in its historic records. It has been borne by many persons distinguished in clerical, legal, and political pursuits, and in the military service of the United States. Its orthography indicates descent from the old Norse stock, which, blended with the Saxon, has done so much to spread Protestant civilization throughout the world. The father of Mr. Hubbard was Lemuel Hubbard a native of Berlin, and was engaged in agricultural pursuits. His mother, nee Elizabeth Dudley, came from Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Governor Hubbard's youth was passed in East Hartford. When prepared for
Dr. D. Hubbard
79
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA1.
entrance at college, he matriculated at Yale, and graduated therefrom in 1839, at the age of twenty-one. Scholastically prepared for the duties of active life, and constitutionally disposed to rely on his own exertions, he chose the profession of law for his future vocation, and entered the office of Hungerford & Cone, at Hartford. There he acquired a competent knowledge of common and statute law. accustomed himself to close and comprehensive study, and became thoroughly quali- fied for the achievement of success at the bar.
His political career began in 1842, in which year he was elected to the Legis- lature as the representative of East Hartford. He was re-elected from the same town in 1843. From 1846 to 1868 he held the post of State's Attorney for Hartford County. In the years 1855 and 1858 he represented Hartford in the Legislature, and as a member of the Judiciary Committee, and also as chairman of the Com- mittee on the School Fund, wielded great power in directing the legislation of the State. The excellent public school system of Connecticut is indebted to him, as well as to other influential citizens, for its present high state of efficiency. During the war for the preservation of the Union his sympathies and services were patri- otically extended to the Federal Government and to the gallant soldiery that vin- dicated its constitutional supremacy in actual warfare. In common with Governors Buckingham and Douglass, with the Rev. Dr. L. W. Bacon and other clergymen, and with experienced military commanders like Washington, Wellington, Napier, and Napoleon, he held that the military value of soldiers is in proportion, other things being equal. to their moral character, and liberally co-operated with Dr. Bacon in organizing and sustaining the Chaplains' Aid Committee, whose object was to supply all Connecticut regiments with chapel-tents, circulating libraries, and regular news- papers, and to co-operate with the chaplains in their labors for the mental and moral welfare of the men. The association accomplished much good while it lasted, and justified the remark of one of the beneficiaries, that " Connecticut leads every other State, even' the old Bay State, in the aid she is furnishing her chaplains."
The war ended in the interests of free institutions, and of national unity and perpetuity, in 1867 Mr. Hubbard was sent to the Fortieth Congress as represent- ative from the First District, to assist in the reconstruction and consolidation of our common country, and in devising measures for protecting the equal rights and privileges, and for fostering the highest welfare of all its citizens. In Washington he served as a member of the Committees on Claims, and on Expenditures in the Post-Office Department. At the close of his Congressional term a second nomination was proffered to him, but was declined from motives of preference for the legal profession. Mr. Hubbard belongs to a class of statesmen of whom Connecticut has produced many, and of whom she has just reason to be proud
So
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
that class whom official positions seek, and that with an urgency undiminished by their aversion to public life, and reluctance to accept its responsibilities.
In 1872 he yielded to the solicitations of friends and accepted the Democratic nomination for Governor, but was unsuccessful in his candidacy before the people. In 1876 the office again sought and secured his acceptance, and in the following election he was triumphantly chosen. The Souvenir of the Centennial states that " almost under protest he took part in the canvass by making a few public speeches." Governor Hubbard held office for two years as the first incumbent of the chief magistracy under the amended Constitution of the State, which makes the term of Governor biennial in duration.
His reputation as an orator is of high order. Few surpass him in magnetism and attractiveness, have more ample command of language, or hold more closely the attention of auditors. His speeches in Congress received cordial commendation, and his addresses at home have been characterized by great acceptability. His fame as a speaker rests chiefly upon successful efforts in the courts of law. During his protracted service as State's Attorney for Hartford County, he was engaged in some litigations of extraordinary local interest, in which he acquired wide reputation for cultured ability. Thoroughly familiar with all legal principles, and quick to adduce all pertinent precedents and authorities at pleasure, he also delights to plant himself on those eternal equities which underlie all just legal enactments. Remarkable for the aptness of his diction, for the force and beauty of his illustrations, and for the eloquence which bursts from the heart in sympathy with its client, the triumphs won in legal conflicts live in the memories of contemporaries, many of whom regard him as the present leader of the State bar. His personal dignity of manner has sometimes, it is said, been mistaken for haughtiness, but those who know him best affirm with truthfulness his steadfastness in friendship, his kindliness of soul, and his courtesy in intercourse with men. His opinions are the fruit of mature thought, his firmness in harmony with his convictions, and his integrity unques- tioned by his widespread constituents.
(No) Buckingham
81
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.
B UCKINGHAM, WILLIAM A., War-Governor of Connecticut. Born on the 28th of May, 1804, in the ancient town of Lebanon, Conn. He was of a Puritan family, whose memorials, from the first of the name who left England in 1637, down to the present, have been preserved in unbroken line. Their publication affords a splendid illustration of the power of carly influences in moulding the character - of successive generations. The first American immigrant of the name-Thomas Buckingham-settled first in Boston, then in New Haven, and finally at Milford, Conn. His son, the Rev. Thomas Buckingham, settled in Saybrook, and was one of the founders of Yale College, and of the Synod that formed the Saybrook platform. Governor Buckingham was of the eighth generation in line of direct descent from the God-fearing heroic English Puritan. For nearly two centuries and a half, the record shows that his ancestors were men of fervent piety' of superior intellectual powers, of rare sagacity in affairs, and of prominence in the community of which they were members. It may also be added that they were in thorough sympathy with the doctrine that all men are entitled to equal rights in church and state. Dr. Henry Martyn Dexter, in his magnificent work on The Con- gregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, as Seen in its Literature, p. 573, records that "in September, 1660, at the ordination of Thomas Buckingham, in Say- brook, Conn., the lay brethren claimed it as their right to lay on hands. The Council thought it "irregular," but "as the brethren are so tenacious in what they consider their right, they are allowed in its exercise." Felt, c. ii., p. 267. There can be little doubt that the pastor elect shared in their views, and none that his opinions were substantially transmitted to his descendants. The father and mother of William A. Buckingham were both remarkable persons. Of the first, it is said that he was an enterprising and thrifty farmer, of cordial and hospitable characteristics, a Christian gentleman of rare good judgment, of careful and exact business habits, reverent, tender-hearted, and full of sympathy, and rigid in his ideas of personal duty. Of the second, it is said that she commanded the love and gratitude of the entire community in which she lived; that she ministered like an angel to the relief of the sick and dying; that she spent little on herself, but much on others; scattering her gifts wherever needed, and giving most cheerfully the best at her command. With such a parentage, William A. Buckingham must necessarily have developed an extraordinary manhood. He did so : a manhood extraordinary in its greatness and goodness, and extraordinary in its preciousness to the patriots of his State and nation.
He was born and reared among patriotic associates; for even in the colonial period, and especially in the days of Jonathan Trumbull, Lebanon was pre-eminent for its patriotism. Hle was educated in the public schools in his own and a neighboring village. He was taught to bear his own part in honest labor on his father's farm. 6
82
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.
At the age of eighteen he taught school for a single year; but preferring the vocation of a merchant, as best suited to his tastes and circumstances, he entered into the employ of a mercantile firm at Norwich as a clerk. Trade became his study, and a study in which he became so proficient, after three years of close application, that he felt himself qualified for business upon his own responsibility. At twenty-three he opened a store in Norwich, and was successful in the venture from the very outset. As a man of business he was a model. " Upright, prompt, faithful to all engagements, attentive, careful, courteous, and possessed of that rare sagacity which was a family trait, he won the confidence of all with whom he had relations." "At the age of twenty-six," continues the Hon. O. S. Ferry, from whose memorial address in the Senate of the United States these extracts are taken, " he made open profession of the faith which had already become the controlling influence in his life, by uniting in the membership of the church of his ancestors. Between that event and the present hour [February 27th, 1875], forty-five years of a stainless life, and of earnest, unceasing, Christian endeavor attest the sincerity of his profession."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.