USA > Connecticut > New London County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of New London County, Connecticut > Part 16
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On November 2, 1878, Mr. Hall was mar- ried to Miss Caroline E. Blackwell, of East Wareham, Mass. Her parents were Ellis and Elizabeth Blackwell, and she has one brother, Thomas Blackwell ; of East Wareham. There were two sisters, but neither is now living. Maude E. Hall, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hall, is a student in Norwich Free Acad- emy. The family reside at 22 Fairmont Street.
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APTAIN DANIEL WEBSTER CHESTER, a well-known sea cap- tain of Noank and a son of Charles and Betsy (Wilbur) Chester, was born here, January 14, 1839. His ancestors were among the first settlers of New England. The first Chester of whom there is a record was a certain Captain John Chester, who, it is said, came from England in his own ship. Nathan Ches - ter, the grandfather of Captain Daniel, was born April 14, 1765, at the Chester farm near Eastern Point. He followed farming on the old homestead, a mile distant from Noank, and lived to be ninety years of age. With his wife, who was a Wallsworth, he reared seven sons and one daughter. Nathan, the eldest of these children, went to Ohio, where he was president of a college. Asa and Eldredge, who were twins, settled at Albion, N. Y. Ex- cepting Albert, all Nathan's children are de- ceased. Their descendants still live in the West. Charles Chester, the father of the subject of this sketch, born in Noank about 1794, died in 1848. He married Betsy Wil- bur, of Noank, who, born in 1800, died in 1884. Their four children were: Delia, who is now the widow of George Chipman, of Noank, and has one daughter; William Chester, who was a bachelor, and died in 1863; and Charles Ira Chester, of Noank, born in I.834.
Captain Daniel Webster Chester was edu- cated in the district schools, which he at- tended until about thirteen years of age, being employed for cight months of the year on a fishing-smack. For the past twenty years he has been "Captain " Chester. Dur- ing the first ten years of this time he was em- ployed in the coasting trade with Southern ports and the West Indies. In the last ten years he sailed to Australia, Africa, Europe, Peru, and the Philippine Islands. The two
latter places were visited while the Chilian War was waging. His coasting service of five years was performed on the "Triumph," a two-masted schooner. His second boat, which served him for five years, was a threc- master; and his last ship was a three-master of eighteen hundred tons, called "The Daunt- less," built in Mystic, and in which he made his foreign voyages. This vessel was cast away on the coast of Africa. He abandoned his seafaring life in 1883. Since that time he has been engaged in the coal business. About twenty-seven years ago he erected his residence at the corner of Chapel Street and Chester Avenue.
On December 10, 1863, Captain Chester married Mary Emma Fitch, of Noank, daugh- ter of Elisha and Mary Peabody Fitch, of the same place. Her grandparents were Latham and Waty (Burrows) Fitch. Mr. Fitch, a na- tive of Groton, followed the sea, and died in 1808. His wife was born August 18, 1769, and died May 22, 1863. Nathan Burrows, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Chester, lived in the village now known as Mystic, where his house afforded a hospitable retreat to refu- gees from Fisher's Island, Long Island, and Block Island. Many were the interesting stories that Mrs. Waty Fitch related to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchil- dren, of the stirring events of the Revolution. Among them she told of the massacre at Fort' Griswold in 1781; of the burning of the houses on Fisher's Island in the first bom- bardment of the coast in September, 1775; and of the mutiny, three years later, on the privateer "Eagle," in which several of her friends were murdered. She had nine chil- dren, eight of whom, four sons and four daughters, reached maturity. Captain Ches- ter and his wife have had five children, namely: Lizzie D., who died at the age of
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nine years; Juliette F., who was educated at Wilbraham; Hattie, who died when nine months old; John D. W., now a student at Colgate University in Hamilton, N. Y., class of 1899; and Claude Milton, a graduate of Bulkeley School, and now attending Colgate. Both the Captain and Mrs. Chester are mem- bers of the Baptist church. Captain Chester is a trustee and the treasurer of the society.
ILAS B. WHEELER, an enter- prising and progressive agricultur- ist of Stonington, Conn., has been identified with the leading interests of this section of New London County for many years as an educator, a town officer, and a member of the legislature. He was born June 25, 1845, on the farm where he now resides, and which was also the birthplace of his father, the late Hiram W. Wheeler. He is of Eng- lish antecedents, the emigrant ancestor on both sides being Thomas Whceler, who came to this country in the very early part of the seventeenth century, and is likewise a direct descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mul- lins. The homestead property, originally containing one hundred and sixty acres, was formerly owned by the great-grandfather of Mr. Wheeler, who willed it to his sons, Na- thaniel and Silas, the latter being the grand- father of Silas B. The first house on the place was built in 1680; but of this nothing is left standing excepting the large stone chim- ney, the remainder having been taken down in 1895.
Hiram W. Wheeler was born February 19, 1805, and spent his life engaged in agricult- ural pursuits on the homestead, his death oc- curring here, January 19, 1891. He married Mary B. Wheeler, who was a distant relative. She was born in Stonington, January 1, 1812,
and died December 14, 1885. On February 1, 1832, the union of the parents was solem- nized. They had five children, as follows: Hiram W., born November 19, 1832, a car- penter by trade, went to Minnesota when a young man, and was accidentally drowned Au- gust 27, 1856, in the Mississippi River; Sam- uel A., born October 23, 1838, a resident of Providence, R.I., is superintendent of the Consolidated Railroad from New London to Providence; the Hon. Ralph Wheeler, born May 14, 1843, was graduated from Yale in 1864, studied law in Mystic and Ohio, is a leading attorney of New London, of which he is an ex-Mayor and Judge of the Superior Court, an office to which he was appointed in 1893; Silas B., the special subject of this brief biographical sketch; and Mary A., born January 30, 1850, who lives on the old home- stead with her brother Silas.
Silas B. Wheeler was graduated from the Mystic River Academy when but sixteen years of age, and at once began his profes- sional career, continuing for twenty-eight con- secutive years as a teacher in the public schools of this locality. In 1868 he was elected a member of the Town Board of Edu- cation, in which he has since done faithful service, his thorough acquaintance with the duties and needs of the schools making him a most efficient and desirable official. He has also been Assessor, a member of the Board of Relief, a Justice of the Peace, and in 1888 was elected as a Representative to the State legislature, in which he served on the Educa- tional Committee. In 1890 he was re-elected to the same responsible position, and during that term was a member of the Committee on Railroads. Having given up his school to enter the legislature, Mr. Wheeler has since turned his attention to farming, occupying the ancestral homestead, which he bought from
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the remaining heirs after his father's death. This contains one hundred and twenty acres of land, and three miles away he has another farm of one hundred acres. He carries on the various branches of mixed farming with success.
On September 3, 1872, Mr. Wheeler mar- ried Mary A. Cooper, of Centreville, R.I., a daughter of the Rev. John Cooper, who came from England to Connecticut, and was for many years a manufacturer in Woodstock, Conn., and afterward became a Methodist clergyman.
Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have had four chil- dren: Edna M. was born August 20, 1873, graduated from Wesleyan Academy, Wil- braham, Mass., in June, 1891, and was mar- ried October 20, 1896, to Orson C. Pulver, a merchant of Hillsdale, N. Y .; Ralph C. was born November 5, 1876, completed his educa- tion at the Connecticut Literary Institute, Suffield, Conn., and is now in business at Dedham, Mass .; Richard W. was born May 3, 1885, and died March 16, 1888; and Helen L. was born August 12, ISS9.
In politics Mr. Wheeler is a Democrat.
AMES. F. BUGBEE, a well-known merchant of Lyme, was born in Tol- land, Conn., on the last day of Janu- ary, 1863, son of A. S. Bugbee and his wife, Serepta Barrows Bugbec. He represents the fifth generation of his family in America, his great-great-grandparents having come from England when their son, John Bugbee, his great-grandfather, was but a youth. They were industrious people in humbie circum- stances. John Bugbee was a tailor by trade, and lived to be an old man. His son Alan- son, a farmer in Tolland County, now retired and living in Hartford, was born in Mans-
field, August 25, 1804, and at the age of ninety-three is still remarkably well and strong for his years, and in possession of all his faculties. He was a manufacturer of woollen goods in Tolland, and at one time had three stores. He met with heavy loss through indorsement and fire, but in all business was thoroughly honest, and would never keep a cent that was not lawfully his own. His wife, Abigail Spellman, of Stafford, who died in 1887, at the age of seventy-nine, was the mother of nine children, eight of whoni, five sons and three daughters, grew to maturity. One of the sons, Sylvester by name, enlisted in the cavalry at eighteen, and had served nearly three years in the Civil War, rising from the ranks to be Sergeant, when he was killed at Wilson's Raid, being then but twenty-one. The living children of Alanson Bugbee are: Arthur, of Springfield, Mass. ; Walter, in Middletown, Conn .; and Mr. A. S. Bugbee, of Saybrook, born in 1832.
For eight years Mr. James F. Bugbee was in business at Silltown in Lyme, in company with R. W. Chadwick, the firm being R. W. Chadwick & Co., dealers in flour, feed, and grain. In 1889 the firm sold out, and Mr. Bugbee bought the stock and trade of Robert Ebell at the general merchandise store where he is now located and carrying on a successful trade. Mr. Bugbce is a Master Mason of Pythagoras Lodge, No. 45, of Lyme, and also a member of the I. O. O. F. In politics he is a Democrat. He has been a member of the Board of Relief, and is one of the Selectmen of the town. In 1895 he was sent as Repre- sentative to the legislature, and served his constituents to their satisfaction and to his own credit. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bugbee are members and earnest supporters of the Con- gregational church.
On July 11, 1880, Mr. Bugbee was married
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to Mary Louise, daughter of Thomas S. and Charlotte Augusta (Rogers) Swan. Her father, a native of East Haddam, was born in 1815, and died in 1882; and her mother, a na- tive of Lyme, was born in 1824, and died in 1870. Grandfather Thomas W. Swan, father of Thomas S., was a man of note in public life. His wife was Louisa Emmons, of East Haddam. She bore him three sons and three daughters. Thomas S. Swan was a farmer in Old Lyme, near Laysville, and was very prominent in public affairs in the town. He served as a Representative in the legislature, was Town Clerk for over twenty-five years, and was actively interested in educational matters. Mr. and Mrs. Swan had five chil- dren, of whom four grew to maturity; namely, T. Walter, Ada, Helen, and Mary Louise. T. Walter Swan, born in 1846, was graduated from Yale College in the class of 1869, was admitted to the bar in 1871, and died in Flor- ida in 1878 of lung trouble. His wife sur- vives him, together with a son, T. Walter Swan, Jr., in Yale, and Isabel, also a student in college. Ada Augusta is a widow, and lives at Shelburne Falls, Mass. Helen Lizzie was the wife of Austin Perkins, of Nor- wich. She died in Kingston, N. Y., in 1890, on the 10th of September, at the age of thirty- one years. Mary Louise was educated in the common schools of Lyme and in Norwich. She was married to Mr. Bugbee at the age of nineteen, and began her wedded life in this town. Mr. and Mrs. Bugbee have one child, a daughter Ruth, eleven years of age.
One of Mrs. Bugbee's great-grandfathers on the maternal side was Lynde Lord, born at Lyme in 1767. He was a descendant of William Lord, who was born in England in 1623, came to America with his father, Thomas Lord, in 1635, and was a compara- tively early settler of Saybrook. Lynde Lord
married Mehitable Marvin, a descendant of Reynold Marvin, who came from England about the year 1635, it is thought, and died in Lyme in 1662. Matilda, daughter of Lynde Lord and grandmother of Mrs. Bugbee, was born in 1794, and married in 1822 John Rogers, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1815 and a physician. He removed to Ohio in 1837, where he died many years later. His two children were: Mrs. Bugbee's mother; and an older daughter now living in Ohio.
ALTER FISH, one of the progres- sive farmers of Groton, was born in his present abode, November 22, 1854, son of William R. and Lydia (Will- iams) Fish. He is a descendant of John Fish, who settled in Groton, Conn., as early as 1655, being one of the first settlers there. Captain Samuel Fish, son of John, and the next in line of descent, was born in 1656 or 1657. His name occurs in the patents of New London in 1704, the year prior to the incorporation of Groton. He was the 'second townsman in Groton on its organization, and was re-elected to this position for many years. In the French and Indian War he bore a Cap- tain's commission. His lands, which must have exceeded a thousand acres, were situated between the Mystic River and the north-east spur of Fort Hill. Near the centre of his es- tate was Pequot Hill, between which and the river he built his house. His son, Nathan Fish, the paternal great-great-grandfather of Walter Fish, was a shoemaker by trade. After he lost his parents, he was reared to manhood on Shelter Island, New York, where he learned his trade. He was also a farmer. His son Sands followed the same pursuits in Mystic, Conn. Simeon, son of Sands and the grandfather of Walter Fish, was a ship-
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WALTER FISH.
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builder, being one of four who established the old Field ship-yard. His partners were: William Clift, who left the sea to engage in the enterprise; Nathan S. Fish, his brother; and William E. Maxson. They began by building fishing smacks. Later they fur- nished coasting-vessels for the cotton trade, and clipper ships for the California trade. Among many fine craft of their construction was the "B. F. Hoxie," which was well known to the merchant marine service in California. Grandfather Simeon married Eliza, daughter of Jedediah Randall, on whose land the ship- yard was located. Mr. Randall was an out- fitter, and prepared many whaling-vessels for sea. Simeon, who was born here in 1797, died in 1861, at the age of sixty-four years. His wife, who was six years younger, survived him fifteen years. Their children were: William R .; Nathan S., of Mystic; and Jede- diah Randall Fish, of New London.
William R. Fish was born in the village of Mystic, July 17, 1824. From the time he was fifteen years of age he worked on the farm, toiling for almost a half-century. This farm of one hundred acres is one of the best of its size in this section. In 1849 William married Lydia Williams, of Ledyard, Conn. Her parents were Erastus and Nancy (Hewitt) Williams, her father having been the son of the third William Williams. She had three children - Ida, Mary, and Walter. Ida mar- ried Russell W. Welles at Poquonnock Bridge, and Mary married Thomas Wolf on this farm. The father was a member of the Baptist church from early youth. He died in May, 1890, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. The mother passed away on October 8, 1896, sixty-seven years old. The house in which they ended their life had been their residence since it had been erected by the father in 1864.
Walter Fish, after completing his studies at
the academy, engaged in farming, which he follows in an up-to-date manner. He has two silos, which were the first built in this sec- tion, with a capacity of one hundred and seventy-five tons, and which he fills with corn grown from twelve acres, gathering from his land twelve hundred bushels besides. He has the latest and best farming implements, in- cluding a portable steam-engine. As a breeder and dealer in the superior Brown Swiss stock he stands second to none, and now keeps thirty head of cattle on his farm. Oli a part of the original farm that he sold, many village homes have been erected. The many massive and well-built walls surround- ing and dividing the property represent a vast amount of labor and expense. For several years he has been the president of the Brown Swiss Breeders' Association of America, in which capacity his father served for twelve years or more before his death.
In 1884 Mr. Fish married Eunice Avery, of Preston, Conn. They have a comely and interesting daughter, Fanny Ella, who was born November 14, 1888. Mr. Fish is a member of the Baptist church. Mrs. Fish is a daughter of Erasmus and Eunice (Williams) Avery, both of whom reside near her. She is a descendant of Christopher Avery, who, born in England in 1590, lived in Gloucester, Mass., in 1644, officiating as Selectman. His son James, born in England in 1620, married Joanna Greenslade in Boston. The line of descent comes through Christopher; James; James (second) ; John; John, Jr. ; and Robert, the grandfather of Mrs. Fish. Through the Avery family she traces her an- cestry to Elder Brewster, of the "Mayflower." In their possession is a fine specimen of the tall, old-fashioned clock, which was built by John Avery, her great-grandfather, and is re- garded as an heirloom of the Williams family.
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ARRIET HUBBARD, a respected resident of Stonington, is a daughter of George and Sally (Swan) Hub- bard, both of this town, and was born Septem- ber 2, 1812. Her grandfather, John Hub- bard, was one of three brothers, young men of means, who came to this country from Eng- land, and spent here the rest of their lives. The grandfather settled in Windsor County, near Hartford, Conn., where he died when over eighty years of age. His wife was in maidenhood Susanna Mills; and they had three sons - John, Job, and George. George Hubbard, father of Miss Harriet Hubbard, was born in Windsor County, July 23, 1780. Entering Yale College, he subsequently took a degree there; and in 1807 he came to Ston- ington, where he practised law for many years, becoming one of the leading lawyers in the town. He had a financial interest in shipping, and was also the founder of the Stonington Bank. A loyal citizen, interested in public affairs, he was elected Representa- tive of the town for several terms, serving both in the upper and lower house. He was also a Master Mason. In 1809 he mar- ried Mrs. Sally Swan Phelps, widow of Dr. Charles Phelps, who died in 1800, leav- ing her with four children, three sons and one daughter, none of whom lived beyond middle life. She was born October 5, 1772, and died in 1841, at sixty-nine years of age. Mr. Hubbard died in 1853, his death being widely regretted. He left his daughter a fair com- petency. He and his wife were the parents of three children - George, Harriet, and one that died in infancy. George, born in 1810, was for many years Collector of the Port at Stonington. Miss Harriet Hubbard received a liberal education, attending schools in Ston- ington, New Haven, and New York. After finishing her studies, she returned to her na-
tive village, where she has since resided, doing much good in a quiet, unobtrusive way. She is an earnest worker in the Second Con- gregational Church, and is the last surviving member of her family.
ATTIIEW STILLMAN CLARK, a well-known and esteemed citizen of Salem, was born in the town of Westerly, R. I., January 13, 1816, eighty- two years ago, son of Augustus and Ruth (Barker) Clark. The family is noted for its longevity. Grandfather Clark was an octo- genarian, and his wife also lived to be very old. Mr. Clark's mother, who was a Barker, of Newport, R. I., died at the age of eighty- five. She had nine children, six of whom lived to maturity. George Barker Clark went to Jasper County, Illinois, forty years ago.
Matthew Clark received his education partly in Westerly, R.I., and partly in Franklin, New London County, to which place his par- ents removed when he was about sixteen years old. He spent two years, 1855 and 1856, in Poquonock, where he was engaged in the sash and blind industry. In 1848 he married Har- riet M. Pratt, daughter of Joshua and Hannah A. (Brown) Pratt, of Lyme. Her maternal grandfather, Deacon William Brown, of Gro- ton, was a soldier in the Revolution. Her father, Joshua Pratt, who was a blacksmith by trade, served as a Drum Major in the War of 1812. He settled in Salem when a young man, and married first Abby Way, who died leaving two daughters. By his second wife also he had two daughters, but Mrs. Clark is now the only surviving member of the family. Mr. Pratt died at the age of eighty-three years. His widow passed away at their old home about 1879, aged eighty-seven.
Mr. and Mrs. Clark lost one son at the age
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of eleven months, Arthur Henry by name. They have three living children, namely: Joshua P., who conducts the farm, saw-mill, grist-mill, and shingle-mill, and who is mar- ried and has one son, Charles Stillman Clark, now five years of age; Thomas S., also a resi- dent of this place, and married; and Ora E., wife of Nathaniel Clark, and a resident of this town. Mr. Nathaniel Clark is a relative of the family by marriage only.
The original owner of the Clark homestead was Lavine Stoddard, who built the dam and the grist-mill in 1812. The Clarks settled here forty years ago, the farm then compris- ing fifty-four acres of land, with the saw and grist mill. Mr. Clark erected a shingle-mill a few years later, which has proved profitable to him and of benefit to the community. He made one hundred and fifty thousand shingles in one year, which he sold at two and one-half dollars per thousand. During the same year he ground eleven thousand bushels of grain, and his saw-mill netted him two hundred dollars. The property has doubled in value since it came into his possession. Mr. Clark, in spite of his eighty-two years, is a hale and ac- tive man, and retains all his faculties unim- paired. He has not even been obliged to use eye-glasses, now so generally worn; and to his intellectual powers the years have only added strength.
ENJAMIN FRANKLIN WILL- IAMS, a prosperous farmer of Ston- ington, was born in Ledyard, Conn., September 7, 1841, son of Seth and Lucy A. (Noyes) Williams. The grand- father, Seth Williams, was an industrious farmer of Ledyard, who had six children, three sons and three daughters. The father, Seth Williams, second, born in Ledyard in
1801, married Lucy Ann, a daughter of Jo- seph and Zerviah (Wheeler) Noyes. Her mother was a daughter of Paul Wheeler, a man of wealth and note in his time. Mr. and Mrs. Williams had ten children: Seth N. ; Lucy Ann; Eunice Servia; Harriet; Newel Gurdon; Joseph Warren; William Henry; Benjamin Franklin, the subject of this sketch; Abbie Eliza; and Orrin Merwin. Eight of them are still living.
Benjamin Williams attended the district schools until he was fifteen years old, when he was sent to a boarding-school in East Greenwich, where he studied three years. He then entered Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., where he finished the usual course of study. Returning to Ledyard, at the begin- ning of the Civil War he was one of the first volunteers, but was rejected on account of rheumatism. He then turned his attention to farming as his chief occupation, although later in life he has done much business as ad- ministrator of estates and conservator of the unfortunate and as guardian of minors. He has taken a prominent part in public affairs. He served as School Visitor for nine years, during which time he was clerk of the School Board, and for sixteen years was District Committeeman. Although he is a firm Re- publican and the town of Stonington is Dem- ocratic by a large majority, he is now serving his eighth consecutive year as Selectman, four of which years he was First Selectman. Mr. Williams took an active part in securing for Mystic the new velvet plant of the Rossie Brothers, of Germany; and, when the Mystic Industrial Company was formed in the winter of 1897, he was chosen one of the directors, and was elected its first president. He joined the First Congregational Church in Stoning- ton in 1866, and has since been a member of the Society Committee. He has been a
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