USA > Connecticut > New London County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of New London County, Connecticut > Part 26
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Mrs. Coit are living - Sarah Prentiss and Mary Gardner Brainard - both unmarried, re- siding in New London. Two children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Coit : Mary G., who lived but three years; and William Brainard Coit. The son was graduated in the. class of 1884 from Yale, and is now City Attorney of New London. He is married. Mr. Robert Coit is a member of the Second Congregational Church. He resides in a handsome three-story brick dwelling, 38 Fed- eral Street, which he erected in 1855, the year of his marriage.
ICTOR O. FREEMAN, superintend- ent of the Totokett Mills, New Lon- don County, Connecticut, was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on September 12, 1841. His parents, Charles A. and Anna A. (Holt) Freeman, reared four children; but he is the only one now living. His father was a native of Norfolk, Va.
Mr. Freeman is a veteran of the Civil War, having served as a Union soldier during two periods of enlistments. In April, 1861, di- rectly after the fall of Fort Sumter, he en- listed from Lawrence, Mass., as a private in Company I, under Captain John Pickering, Sixth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, which was the first to march for the defence of Washington in response to the President's call for troops on the 15th of April. On the morning of the 18th the regi- ment, commanded by Colonel Edward F. Jones, passed through New York City, and on the following day reached Baltimore, where the detachment that brought up the rear, led by Captain Follansbec, were obliged to fight their way through a violent mob. Three sol- diers were killed, including one member of Company I, Sumner H. Needham, of Lawrence.
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Mr. Freeman served three months in the Sixth, and subsequently re-enlisted as a pri- vate in the First Massachusetts Cavalry, Com- pany B. He was later made Sergeant, and was with the regiment in all its engagements, excepting when he was in the hospital. He was first wounded at Aldie, where his com- pany went into active service with fifty-two men and came out with only thirteen. Among the slain was his only brother, John B. Freeman, a brave and dashing young man twenty-one years old, who was killed in a rash attempt to save himself from being taken by the Confederates, choosing death rather than the lingering horrors of a Southern prison. He was buried in Aldie under the regimental monument. At Brandy Station Mr. Victor Freeman received a sabre wound in the thigh ; and at Black Water, Va., he received a severe gunshot wound in his right thigh. He was discharged at Readville, Mass., in July, 1865, and shortly after went to work in the Naum- keag Mill at Salem, Mass., beginning at the lowest round of the ladder as a card stripper. He worked subsequently at New Market, N.H. ; Great Falls, N. H. ; at Indian Orchard, Me., where he started Mill No. 7; and at Arkwright, R.I., where he had charge of the carding-room. He came from Arkwright to Occum about twenty-seven years ago as super- intendent of the carding-room, and within a short time of his arrival was placed in charge of the mill, succeeding Lyman Frisbie, who was then travelling for his health, and who subsequently died in California. In politics Mr. Freeman is a Republican. He is a mem- ber of Sedgwick Post, No. 1, G. A. R.
In October, 1866, Mr. Freeman was united in marriage with Mary Hines, of Readville, Mass. Of the ten children that have been born to them, three died in infancy, and seven are living, namely: Lyman W .; Charles E. ;
Albert R .; John B. and his twin sister, Hilda J. ; Mary E., eight years of age; and Annie P., six years of age. These were all born in Occum, Conn. Lyman W., the eld- est, is paymaster and in charge of the cloth department of the mill. The pay-roll em- braces one hundred and fifty-six employees. men, women, and children. Charles E. Free- man has recently had charge of the mechanical department of the mill; and on the retirement of his father, on July 1, 1896, he assumed the superintendency.
ILLIAM H. MANSFIELD, farmer and merchant of Preston, one of the central towns of New London County, was born in Saxonland, Germany, January 29, 1847, son of Andrew and Mary Mansfield. His father died in Germany in 1851, when about forty-three years of age, leaving a widow and five children. Mary, the eldest-born, sailed from Bremen in 1853, ar- riving in New York after a voyage of five weeks. Two years later her sister Louisa fol- lowed her to America; and both settled in Norwich, Conn. They were able to send money home to their mother, who was in humble circumstances; and she joined them in 1857, accompanied by her two younger chil- dren: Henry, who was fifteen; and William H., then but ten years of age. Christian, an older son, joined them in Norwich in 1861. Mrs. Mansfield died in 1891, in the seventy- ninth year of her age. But three of the chil- dren are now living, namely: Louisa, who married Henry Hasler, of Ledyard; Henry, a resident of P'reston ; and William H., the sub- ject of this sketch.
William 11. Mansfield began life in Nor- wich by working out on the neighboring farms, thus earning his clothes and schooling
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and small sums of money besides. When twenty years of age he made a five months' voyage to Hudson's Bay on a whaling schooner, under Captain Budding, of New London. His second voyage was on the schooner "Georgiana" from New London to North Carolina, and thence to the West India Islands and Australia. He followed the sea for five years as sailor and mate, but at the end of that time returned to Preston to enter the Lucas woollen-mill.
On December 10, 1871, Mr. Mansfield mar- ried Susan Bush, of Poquetannock, a daughter of Peter Bush. With his wife he worked on the Nash farm for about seventeen months, afterward returning to the mill, where they were employed for two years. He subse- quently spent several years in different lines of work, until in 1879 he opened a store in Poquetannock, and two years later was able to purchase his fine property of fourteen acres, for which he paid thirty-eight hundred dol- lars. Here he opened a store, and has since done a small but profitable business.
Mr. and Mrs. Mansfield lost one son when seventeen months old. They have one son living and one daughter: George, a young man of about twenty-one years, who is at present clerk in his father's store; and Phebe, a young lady residing at home. Mr. Mans- field is a member of the I. O. O. F., of the Knights of Pythias, and of the German So- ciety, Sons of Hermann, of which he is an officer. In political ranks he stands as an in- dependent voter.
APTAIN ELIAS F. WILCOX, a prominent citizen of Stonington, Conn., was born within a few rods of his present home, October 6, 1850, son of Elias and Hannah (Dennison) Wilcox. The
paternal great-grandfather was Hezekiah Wil- cox, who lived at Watch Hill, where his son Jesse was born in !752. This son, by trade a ship carpenter and builder, made and sailed many different packets, carrying freight and passengers to New York. Soon after the breaking out of the Revolution he moved to Stonington. He and his eldest son, Jesse, while out in a small sail-boat in 1827, were caught in a squall, and drowned. Their bodies were recovered and buried in Stoning- ton. Jesse Wilcox was twice married. By his first wife, to whom he was united just before leaving Watch Hill, and whose maiden name was Nancy Pendleton, he had six chil- dren. £ He married for his second wife Me- hitable Wilcox, daughter of Ebenezer Wilcox, of Stonington. Mrs. Wilcox was a remark- able woman, of superb constitution and well endowed both physically and mentally. She came of a long-lived family, some of whom reached the age of one hundred years, and re- tained her powers to a remarkable degree until her death, which occurred in 1868, at the age of ninety-nine years, six months, and twenty- three days. She bore her husband seven children - Iantha, Ebenezer, Elisha, Mason B., Elnathan M., Silas, and Elias.
Elias Wilcox was born April 3, 1815. He engaged in the fish business, establishing a factory for the manufacture of fish, oil, and fertilizer on the shore of Fisher's Island Sound about 1866, which factory was burned in 1882. In 1843 he married Hannah, a daughter of Henry and Lucy (Smith) Denni- son, of Groton, and one of ten children, all of whom are living at the present time except the eldest, who died in 1894, at the age of eighty. Mr. and Mrs. Elias Wilcox have had ten children, eight of whom grew to ma- turity. The parents celebrated their golden wedding in 1893.
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Elias F. Wilcox, the direct subject of this sketch, received his education in the district school. At the age of eighteen he began fishing in company with his father and other members of the family, who were engaged in menhaden fishing. This business, of which he is now a half-owner, is run under the company name of "The Wilcox Fertilizer Works." The business of this company has largely increased, and the high reputation of Wilcox fertilizers is widely known throughout New England.
January 15, 1873, Mr. Wilcox married Sarah J. Davis, daughter of Elias and Julia A. (Wilcox) Davis, of Stonington. They have had two children, both of whom have gone before to the heavenly mansions: Annie L., a bright and interesting little girl, who died at the age of ten years; and Willie F., who died when he was sixteen, having been an in- valid for several years. Captain Wilcox is a Republican in politics. He is a Master Mason and a member of the A. O. U. W. He built his present home, on the bank of the Sound, in 1874. He and his wife are members of the Baptist church, in which he is a Deacon; and both are highly respected in Stonington and the vicinity.
ILLIAM STORRS LEE, a prom- inent farmer of Spraguc, son of William and Sarah (Storrs) Lee, was born December 15, 1827, at the old homestead near Hanover, where he now lives, and where his grandfather, the Rev. Andrew Lee, D. D., who was born in Lymc, in the southern part of the county, in 1745, and was pastor of the Congregational church at Han- over more than sixty years, settled upward of one hundred and twenty years ago, building the farm-house here in 1770.
A detailed account of the Lee family, founded by Licutenant Thomas Lee, who set- tled at Saybrook, Conn., in 1641, and later lived at Lyme, is given in volume three of Family Histories and Genealogies, by E. E. and E. M. Salisbury: Lieutenant Thomas was the only son of Thomas, first. who died on the passage to America, with his wife and three children. "The Lee family," we are told, "of which he was the progenitor, has always held a respectable position, and many times has been prominent under its own name, and in its female lines has carried its traits into many families of distinction."
From Lieutenant Thomas 2 the line we are now considering descended through his son John 3 by his first wife, Sarah Kirtland; John, 4 son of John3; and Andrew,5 above named, son of John+ and Abigail (Tully) Lee. The Rev. Dr. Andrew Lec was gradu- ated at Yale College in 1766, and later in life was a fellow of the corporation. He was the author of an octavo volume of sermons and of other writings. As a theologian he was known as "moderately Calvinistic." IIe is spoken of as a good classical scholar and a very industrious and useful man. He was chaplain of the Fourth Regiment, Colon John Durkee's, Connecticut line, January 1 1 October 15, 1777. Dr. Lee retired from h pastorate a few years before his death, whic occurred in 1832. Of his large family ot children by his wife, Eunice Hall, William, father of Mr. William S. Lee, was the youngest.
William Lee was born on the Lee home- stead in 1785, and spent his whole life here, engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was for forty-one years a Deacon of the church of which his father had so long been the pastor. IIc was an earnest Christian man and active in temperance and anti-slavery reforms. He was three times married, his first wife being
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Nancy Bingham, whom he married in 1812. She bore him six children; namely, Eliza, Eunice Hall, Nancy, Andrew, Talitha, and Lucy. Eliza, the eldest, now Mrs. Crary, a widow, resides in Norwich; Eunice Hall is the widow of Levi P. Rowland, and lives in Springfield, Mass .; Nancy, wife of Nathan Bishop, died at about the age of seventy years, leaving a family; Andrew, who was born in 1820, died in Northfield, Minn., in May, IS97; Talitha, now Mrs. Cushman, a widow, lives in California; and Lucy has been twice married, and is now Mrs. Knowlton, of Minnesota. Mrs. Nancy Bingham Lee died January 4, 1825, at thirty-seven years of age; and William Lee subsequently married Sarah Storrs, who became the mother of the subject of this sketch and of his brother, Samuel Henry Lee, president of the French American College at Springfield, Mass., a graduate of Yale in the class of 1858, and an ordained clergyman of the Congregational church. By his third wife, Thankful Ayer, whom Deacon Lee married May 27, 1840, he had no chil- dren. He died March 24, 1871 ; and she sur- vived him nine years.
William Storrs Lee obtained a fair educa- ion in the common schools, and at the age of eventeen began to learn the tinsmith's trade : Plainfield, Conn. He worked there for even years, and subsequently in Springfield, Mass., for seven years. After his marriage he settled on the old Lee estate in Sprague, which comprises some one hundred and sixty acres of valuable land. Here he carries on general farming and gardening. He has a fine peach orchard of several hundred trees. In politics Mr. Lee is a Republican, but his sympathy is with the Prohibitionists. IIe and his wife are members of the Congrega- tional church.
Mr. Lee married on April 4, 1860, Frances
Anna Calkins, daughter of Elisha and Abby (Chapman) Calkins, of East Lyme. Mr. and Mrs. Lee have one son, William Storrs Lee, Jr., who is a graduate of Storrs Agricultural College, and is now living at the old home- stead. He married on March 28, 1894, Hettie Chapman, of Sprague, daughter of Fuller Chapman. Abbie S. Lee, late a music teacher of New York City, the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lee, died on May 1, 1896. She was a graduate of Norwich Free Academy and of the New Britain Normal School. For nine years previous to her death she had been a highly successful and deeply loved teacher in New York at the Workingman's School, under the Society for Ethical Culture, and also in the People's Singing Classes and the People's Choral Union from their inception. Her success in all respects as a teacher at- tracted marked attention among those capable of judging her work. The director of the singing classes said of her, "She was faithful to every task at any cost," and "she had but one idea, to do everything she attempted just as well as she could do it."
TORACE O. BURCH, of the firm H. O. Burch & Co., who are general contractors for sidewalks and build- ing movers in New London, was born here, September 20, 1851, son of Isaac O. and Mary Ann (Moore) Burch. The paternal grandfather, Isaac, who was also a native of this county, married Nancy Pettigrew. They reared seven children, of whom four are liv- ing, namely : Henry, a resident of this city: Nancy Tinker, of East Lyme; and Hannah Noyes and Harriet Watrous, who reside in Waterford. Grandfather Burch died on his farm in 1860, and his wife in 1872, at the age of seventy-five years.
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Isaac O. Burch, born in Norwich in 1822, was engaged as building mover in New Lon- don for over forty years, having begun with an ox team in 1846. In 1843 he married Mary Ann Moore. Of their six children they reared: Francis Thomas, a farmer of East Lyme; Mary, the wife of John A. Morgan ; Horace O., the subject of this sketch; Annie, who married Albert E. Harris, of this city; and Walter G. Burch, who also resides in New London. The mother died here in 1879, at the age of sixty years, and the father in 1889, aged sixty-four years. The mother's ancestors settled in East Lyme at an early day. Her grandfather, Edward Moore, reared ten children, of whom Jairus, an aged resi- dent of Deep River, is still living and active. Her parents, Edward and Mary (Gee) Moore, had six children, of whom George W., Lydia M., and Adeline are now living in New London.
Horace O. Burch acquired a common-school education. At the age of fifteen years he be- came a clerk in the grocery store of the late William H. H. Comstock, remaining five years. Then, after spending two years in the business for himself, he entered the employ- ment of his father in 1874. In 1884 his father received him into partnership. At his father's death he succeeded to the business and considerable property. The land on which the barns, sheds, and factory are lo- cated comprises four acres on Truman and Grand Streets. Messrs. Burch & Co. make asphaltum for sidewalks and artificial stone and coping. Mr. Burch has greatly improved the stone or ornamental brick, the manufact- ure of which he and his father began. The old farm, twenty acres, at Great Neck, on which is a large dwelling, is also owned by Mr. Burch.
In politics Mr. Burch is an independent
voter, and he has served for three years in the Common Council. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the United Order of the Golden Cross, and the American Mechanics' Association. On Oc- tober 2, 1872, he was united in marriage to Nellie E. Melzard, of Boston, Mass. Mrs. Burch's parents, Thomas and Ellen (Peterson) Melzard, have both passed away. She has three brothers and one sister, who are settled in Boston, Mass., and Exeter, N. H. Her children were: Emma E., now the wife of Hervey E. Rogers; Ernest W., an electrician in New York; Daisy E., who graduated from the Williams Memorial High School in 1896, and died in October, 1897; Edward, who is engaged with the Warren Chemical Manufact- uring Company, New York; and Mary Moore Burch, a healthy young miss of thirteen years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Burch are highly respected members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
TILES CRANDALL, an esteemed resident of Ledyard, living in re- tirement on his farm, which is situ- ated about a mile north of Old Mystic, was born November 25, 1813, in the town of Gro- ton, Conn., son of Wells and Sally (Wood- bridge) Crandall. Jonathan Crandall, father of Wells, was a Rhode Island farmer, and lived to be about seventy-five years of age. Wells Crandall was born in Rhode Island in 1769. While still a young man, after learn- ing the trade of a tanner, he came to Old Mystic, and was there employed at his trade by Paul Woodbridge. He followed the busi- ness throughout his life, but never on a suffi- cient scale to bring in large returns; and at his death he left but a small property. He died at the age of sixty, and his widow, who
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was a daughter of Paul Woodbridge, at the age of seventy-five. They lie side by side, in the old Woodbridge burial-place
Early in life Stiles Crandall, the only son of the four children born to his parents, went to live with his uncle, James Woodbridge, a well-to-do farmer. He received a good com- mon-school education. When the latter and his wife died, Stiles became heir to the one- hundred - and - fifty-acre farm he now owns, which is half of the fine three-hundred-acre farm left by his uncle.
Fifty - four years ago, on February 15, 1844, Mr. Crandall married Miss Caroline L. Greene, daughter of Stephen and Sarah (Bowles) Greene, who live on a farm on Quaker Hill, Waterford. Mrs. Crandall, now seventy years of age, is the only survivor of the five children born to her parents. Her only sister, Eliza, who was the wife of Will- iam Thompson, of Montville, Conn., died in 1894, aged seventy-five years. Her father lived to be eighty-three. Her mother died five years later, aged eighty-eight. They are buried in the Angel Burial-ground in Water- ford. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Crandall, namely: Augusta Caro- line, who died when eight years old; Ashbel Woodbridge, who lived thirteen months; and S. Ashbel Crandall, an ex-Mayor of Norwich and a successful attorney-at-law.
Mr. Crandall is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Democratic party, and has faithfully served his town in a number of offices. He has been Assessor for about eigh- teen years, Selectman for five years, and he has served in the lower chamber of the Con- necticut legislature. Both he and Mrs. Crandall are esteemed members of the Baptist church. Fifty-two years of their wedded life have been most happily spent in their present home.
HRISTOPHER L. AVERY, a resi- dent of Groton, Conn., the son of Latham and Betsey Wood (Lester) Avery, was born in Groton, June 8, 1826. The Averys of England, we are told, trace their ancestry back to the Saxon kings. The immigrant progenitor of this branch of the family was Christopher Avery from Cornwall, England, one of the colonists who came over with Governor Winthrop in 1630. He settled first in Gloucester, Mass., but removed to Bos- ton in 1658, and a few years later to New London, Conn. James, son of Christopher, born in England, was ten years of age when he came to this country with his father. In 1656 he built a house in Poquonnock, Conn., which had been in the family eight genera- tions when it was set on fire by the sparks from a passing locomotive, and burned to the ground. James had a son James, whose son Benjamin, a farmer of Grotor, was the great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Daniel, son of Benjamin, married Deborah, the daughter of Colonel Ebenezer Avery, a distant relation, and had six sons and two daughters. Daniel Avery was a soldier of the Revolution, and was killed at Fort Gris- wold in his forty-first year. His wife, Debo- rah, lived to be eighty-four years old.
Latham, son of Daniel and Deborah, and the father of Christopher L. Avery, was born in Groton in 1775. When quite a young man he went to Demerara, South America, where he engaged in ship-building and merchandis- ing. After living there some twenty years, he came back to his native town, and engaged in farming. For a while he lived on a farm a little north of Groton. Then he sold out, and moved into the village, where he and his wife spent the rest of their lives. This farm is now in the possession of one of his grand- daughters. He married Betsey, the daughter
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of Christopher and Mary (Fish) Lester, of Groton, the ceremony taking place on the 7th of July, 1816, when he was forty and she eigh- teen. Their children were: Latham, who died unmarried at the age of forty; Betsey Ann, who became the wife of Edmund Fish, and died at sixty-nine, leaving three children ; Emily, who married Silas H. Fish, and died at seventy-two, leaving two children; Mary Jane, who married A. M. Ramsdell, and died at sixty-three; Christopher, the subject of this sketch; Julia, the widow of Richard J. Sherman, of Buffalo, N.Y .; and Deborah, who married the late I. P. Bouse, and died in 1895, aged sixty-five years.
Christopher L. Avery was educated in the district schools and at the academy in New London. At the age of fifteen he went to New York, where he worked as a book-keeper in a counting-house on South Street about four years. He then went to China, where he stayed a year. Returning to America, he went to Buffalo, N. Y., and engaged in the grain business until 1861, when he brought his family to Groton, Conn., and engaged in merchandising in New York City. He re- mained in this business until 1873; and in 1876 he settled on his farm in Groton, where he has since lived.
Mr. Avery is progressive in his ideas and methods, and his well-kept homestead prop- erty shows the signs of good management. The spacious house, which is a model of com- fort and convenience, is situated on rising ground, commanding a delightful and ex- tended view of hills and vales, with a part of the Sound and the Pequonnock River. In politics Mr. Avery is a Democrat, although independent enough to vote the Republican ticket when he considers that candidate to be the better man.
He was married in Brooklyn, N.Y., in
1850, to Sarah W. Smith, who bore four children, namely: Latham, a farmer; Mary Louise, the wife of P. L. Schellens, a mer- chant in Rio Janeiro; Ira Smith, who died at nineteen; and Betsey, the wife of Belton A. Copp, a bank cashier. Mrs. Sarah W. Avery died in 1869; and Mr. Avery married on No- vember 1, 1870, Ellen B. Copp, a daughter of Belton A. and Betsey Ann (Barber) Copp, of Groton, and the grand-daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Allyn) Copp, both descendants of old families. Her father's family is descended from the early Copps, of Boston, for whom Copp's Hill was named. Mr. and Mrs. Avery have two children: Christopher, a law student at Yale; and Mary Jane, a graduate of the Williams Memorial School, living at home.
APTAIN DUDLEY A. BRAND, of New London, an experienced navi- gator, especially skilled in yacht- ing, was born in Westerly, R. I., January 12, 1853, son of Captain Dudley and Catherine (Champlin-Burdick) Brand. His paternal grandfather married a Miss Green, who died when their only son, Dudley, born in Westerly in 1808, was a child. The boy was brought up by his maternal grandfather, and became a successful ship-master in the carrying trade between the West Indies and the Strait of Belle Isle. He commanded the brig " Buffalo," and was lost off Squirrel Island while attempt- ing to put ashore in a small boat.
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