USA > Connecticut > New London County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of New London County, Connecticut > Part 3
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Deacon Joshua B. Leffingwell, son of Chris- topher Leffingwell, was a stirring farmer: and in connection with tilling the soil he operated a stone quarry. In politics he was originally a Whig, but joined the Republican party at its formation. He represented his town in the legislature, and was a man of prominence and political influence in Bozrah and vicinity. He was a Deacon of the Baptist church. He died March 21, 1873. His wife, Mary A. Woodworth, was a native of Montville, Conn.
Their son, Joshua C. Leffingwell, the sub- ject of this sketch, was educated in the com- mon schools of his native town and at a select school in Norwich. For a number of years he was engaged in the stone-quarrying business. but his chief occupation in life has been farm- ing. He owns about two hundred acres of land, which he cultivates to good advantage: and he has acquired a high reputation for the superior quality of his butter and other prod- ucts. He owns and supplies a large milk
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route in Norwich, which through good man- agement is exceedingly profitable.
On August 19, 1868, Mr. Leffingwell was united in marriage with Mary L. Ross, of this town. She is a daughter of Enos C. and Mary A. (Leffingwell) Ross. Her father was a native of New York State, and her mother was born in Bozrah. Mr. and Mrs. Leffing- well are the parents of six children, as fol- lows: Anna M., wife of Nathan Whiting; Fanny E., wife of Herbert E. Beard; Harriet C., wife of Robert E. Champlain; Thomas C .; Frank E. ; and Minnie F.
In politics Mr. Leffingwell is a Republican. He has served as Selectman, Assessor, and a member of the School Board, and was a inem- ber of the House of Representatives in the State legislature during the session of 1881 and 1882. He is a Deacon of the First Bap- tist Church, is a well-known and exceedingly public-spirited citizen, and enjoys the confi- dence of the community.
ORMAN SMITH, the popular mer- chant of Hanover, Conn., was born in this place, June 8, 1826, son of Dr. Vine and Lydia (Lilly) Smith. His paternal grandfather was Josiah Smith, who was born in the neighboring town of Windham, in the county of that name, and is buried in that part of the town that is now Scotland, Conn.
Vine Smith was a genial, courteous man and a skilled physician in lifelong practice in Hanover. He was born in Windham in 1800, and lived to be fifty-seven years of age. His books showing his charges for professional visits are now in the possession of his son Norman. From them it is seen that for calls made in the village the fee was a few cents, and for calls made at a distance of four miles a half-dollar. The professional fees of an
ordinary practitioner of to-day would seem to him enormous. He served in the State legis- lature when the only way to reach the capital was by stage or by private conveyance. The Doctor is well remembered by many of the older residents of Hanover, and even some of the men and women of middle age can recall his visits to their homes during their child- hood. His wife, whom he married in 1824, survived him for twenty years, dying at the age of seventy-six. They had one daughter, Eliza Smith, who married Jared Filmore. She died in childbirth, at the age of twenty- two.
Norman Smith, having obtained his cduca- tion in the common schools and at the Nor- wich Town Academy, a private institution. taught school for a full year in Hanover, and as a pedagogue was an unquestioned success. Believing, however, that better business chances for advancement were to be found in trade, he opened a general merchandise store in the fall of 1845, some time before he was twenty-one. He was out of mercantile pur- suits for eight or ten years previous to 1869, when he opened the store which he has since carried on. It has always been Mr. Smith's endeavor to keep only strictly first-class goods and always to give the largest value possible for the money received. He has a well-established trade, and during the twenty- eight years he has been in business at this stand he has made many acquaintances and won many friends.
Mr. Smith was married in 1850 to Sarah Cutler, born in New York, daughter of Will- iam C. Cutler, who was a native of Connecti- cut. By this marriage there was a family of four children: Ella E., wife of James W. Bennett, of Willimantic, and mother of two children; Mary E., now Mrs. E. O. Tarbox, of this place; Annie C., wife of George P.
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Fenner, of New London, and mother of one daughter; and Ernest L., who is married and resides in Hanover. Mrs. Sarah Smith died; and her husband subsequently married her sister, Lucinda M. Cutler, who for the past twenty-eight years has officiated as Postmis- tress. She is the mother of four children, namely: Adeline A., who is a stenographer and typewriter in the office of Mr. Fenner; Bertha B., a teacher in Portsmouth, N.H .; Lillie L., the wife of Webster Standish, of this place, and mother of two children; and Vine H. Smith, who is now a student in Harvard College.
In politics Mr. Smith is a Democrat. He has served the town as Assessor, Selectman, and as a member of the Board of Relief, and has twice been sent to the legislature. In all these public positions he has used for the ben- 'efit of his fellow-townsmen that sound judg- ment and keen insight into affairs that have made his personal business life a success. He has never been an office-seeker, and has accepted positions only as they were urged upon him. He has been satisfied with legiti- mate gain in his business; and, although he has lived quietly and in a small country town, he has had contentment, which is better than riches, and has not worn himself out with the stress and rush of life in a large town. It is interesting to note that Mr. Smith claims de- scent from Myles Standish, the military leader of the Pilgrims.
RANCIS NELSON BRAMAN, M.D., of New London, Conn., was born in Belchertown, Hampshire County, Mass., May 18, 1836, being the second son of Nathaniel Park and Lucy Ann (Crocker) Braman. The family came originally from Bremen, Germany; and the Doctor belongs to
the Flemish branch. The earliest direct an- cestor of whom he has any authentic account was a man of mathematical and mechanical genius, the inventor and manufacturer of mathematical instruments. One of his early ancestors was a Major in the English army, who, connected in some way with the Rye House Plot, was twice imprisoned in the Tower, and twice released.
Dr. Braman's great-grandfather, John Bra- man, was a native of Washington County, Rhode Island. His grandfather, John Bra- man, Jr., was a citizen of Groton, Conn., a competent farmer and for a while manager of the Fisher's Island (N. Y.) property. He was a man of affairs, active in public matters in Gro- ton, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary army. He died in Mystic, Conn., at the age of seventy-five. He was twice married, and was the father of sixteen children, fifteen of whom attained maturity. His second wife, Dr. Braman's grandmother, was Mary Park, of Mystic or Groton, daughter of Nathaniel Park, of Revolutionary fame. Her ancestry was English. She was the mother of four sons and four daughters. The youngest of the family of sixteen is the only one living to-day, Julia, widow of the late Abraham Mason, of Springfield, Mass.
Nathaniel Park Braman, who was the old- est child of his father's second marriage, was born on Fisher's Island, N. Y., in 1802. He was a farmer in good circumstances, and was active in town affairs. He died in Clinton, Conn., in 1892, aged eighty-nine years and eleven months. He was survived by his wife, Lucy, to whom he was united in March, 1825. Her parents were Ezra and Hannah (New- bury) Crocker, of Waterford, Conn. Her pa- ternal grandfather, Steadman Newbury, of Waterford, served throughout the Revolution- ary War, and was afterward pensioned by the
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government. He was a man of high repute, active in public and religious matters, and was a member of the old Darrow Church of Waterford. He lived to attain the great age of ninety-nine years and nine months. Mrs. Braman was born in Waterford, Conn., April 4, 1808, and, though now in her ninetieth year, is active in mind and body. Six chil- dren were born to her; and, losing one daugh- ter at the tender age of three years, she reared the following: Nathaniel Perkins, now in Florida; Jane L., wife of James L. Davis, in Clinton, Conn .; Francis N., the subject of this sketch; Alfred A. W., who died in Chi- cago in 1893, in his forty-fourth year, having been a skilled tool-maker, in business for a number of years in that city; and Ellen S., widow of Henry Weeden, now living in New Haven, Conn. Nathaniel P. Braman, who is a skilled mechanic, was with the Remingtons, the Colts, and the Winchester Arms Com- pany at different times, and is now retired from active business.
Francis Nelson Braman received his early schooling at Belchertown, Palmer, and Wilbra- ham, Mass. Ile studied medicine in Palmer and New London, and was two years a student in New York under the eminent physicians, Drs. Mott, Mosley, and Austin Flint, Sr. In April, 1866, he opened an office in Salem, Conn. ; and on New Year's Day, 1868, he re- moved to New London, the field of his labors ever since. Dr. Braman is a man of marked ability, and has long been regarded as a leader among his contemporaries. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the county and city medical societies, and has served as president of the State Medical So- ciety. Dr. Braman is physician in charge of the Smith Memorial Home and a corporate member of the Board of the New London Memorial Hospital, also chairman of the med-
ical staff of the hospital. He has won the re- gard of the citizens of New London, not only by his professional work and his fine social qualities, but also by his disinterested efforts as a member of the Board of Education six years, being chairman three years, to bring the schools of the city to their present high standard. During his term of service a new era in school matters was entered upon, the old and unsanitary school buildings were con- demned, a sentiment favoring school sanita- tion was developed, and with it a liberal finan- cial policy. This resulted in the construc- tion of two new edifices and the providing of ways and means for a third.
Dr. Braman has always been active in church and Y. M. C. A. work. At the pres- ent time he is Deacon of the Second Congre- gational Church of New London and its treasurer. In politics he is a Republican.
Dr. Braman was married November 26, 1868, to Miss Jennie E. Loomis, of Salem, Conn., daughter of the late Hubbell and Sophronia (Strickland) Loomis, and has two promising sons - Francis Loomis and Sidney Royce. Mrs. Jennie E. Braman died May 2, 1895. On December 15, 1897, Dr. Braman formed a second matrimonial alliance with Miss Lulu M. Tobias, daughter of Daniel J. and Matilda (Gawthrop) Tobias, of Chicago, Il1.
ANIEL F. PACKER, who has won a world-wide reputation as a manu- facturer of choice soaps, is an cs- teemed resident of Mystic, where he has a beautiful and attractive home. He was born April 6, 1825, in Groton, Conn. A son of Captain Charles Packer, he comes of excellent Massachusetts stock. His great-grandfather, John Packer, came to the county from Plym-
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outh, Mass., in the seventeenth century, and settled in Mystic.
Eldredge Packer, son of John and the pater- nal grandfather of Daniel F., was born in Mystic in 1747. He was a ship-builder, and it is claimed that he launched the first large vessel in Mystic. It is supposed that he owned or commanded a privateer in the Revo- lution. He married Sabrina Packer, who bore him one child, Charles. When he died he had attained the age of fourscore and four years. His widow survived him a few years, dying at the same age. Captain Charles Packer was born in Groton, near Mystic, in 1774. He was a mariner, engaged principally in coast trade during his life. For some years he did an extensive fishing business as captain of a fishing-smack. In the great Christmas snow-storm of many years ago he was among the castaways of Long Island Sound, when he barely escaped death. Very successful in his ventures, through his industry and thrift he acquired a competency. He married Abigail Latham, who was born in Mystic on Brook Street, then called Noank Street. Of their eleven children, five sons and five daughters grew to maturity, and two are still living. The latter are: Hannah W., the widow of the late S. B. Latham, residing at Noank; and Daniel F., the youngest mem- ber of the family. The mother died in 1829, at the age of forty-seven years, and the father died in 1834, aged threescore years. They and the grandparents, together with three of Mr. Packer's sisters and his brother Eldredge, were laid to rest in the Packer Burial-ground near Mystic.
Daniel F. Packer obtained his early educa- tion in the district school of Fishtown, com- pleting his studies at a boarding-school in Northfield, Fairfield County, Conn., where he was a pupil for three years. In 1840 he went
to New York to assist his brother Eldredge, who had a poultry market in that city, and in the following year shipped before the mast on the packet ship "Emerald," under Captain George Howe, a most daring and able skip- per. With Captain Howe, Mr. Packer made two trips to Havre, France, each lasting from thirty-four to forty-five days. He was subse- quently in the market business in New York City for four years. From there, in 1847, he went to Key West, Fla., with Captain C. H. Mallory, and was afterward employed by Cap- tain Latham Brightman for a year. Six days before attaining his majority he bought and assumed the charge of the "Plume of Mys- tic," having for first mate Augustus Will- iams, of North Stonington, and for two years coasted along the reefs of the Tortugas and Florida. In 1851, 1852, and 1853 he was in California, mining for gold. While on the Pacific coast he began the manufacture of soap, to which he has since devoted his atten- tion. He is the originator of the pine tar soap, which is so well known all over this continent and Europe. He also manufactures other kinds, making specialties of "Packer's All-healing Tar Soap" and "Packer's Cuta- neous Charm." Beginning on a modest scale, he has gradually enlarged his business to its present large proportions. He has established factories in twelve States and in Canada and Cuba, and sold rights to Central and South America. His largest enterprise was in Pitts- burg, Pa. One plant, that in New York, with its entire business, he sold for ten thou- sand dollars to Mr. I. P. Morrison, who has since sold his rights to Mr. A. Constantine. Ile established his factory in Mystic some twenty-eight years ago, and it has since been one of the leading industries of the place. A man of rare executive ability, keen and far- seeing, Mr. Packer has brought his goods
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before the public most successfully by attrac- tive advertising. The firm is now known as The Packer Manufacturing Company of New York.
Mr. Packer contracted his first marriage on June 7, 1849, with Margaret M., daughter of Captain Elisha and Margaret (Annan) Nor- cross, of New York City. She died in 1855, leaving one child, Arline M., now the wife of John S. Rathbone, of Mystic. His second marriage, on February 27, 1861, united him to Miss Carrie A. Randall, of Ridgefield, Conn. The only child born of this union, S. Edward, died at the age of five years. Mr. Packer erected his present substantial and commodious residence in 1868. It is beauti- fully located on the hillside of Mystic River, commanding an extensive view. In this pleasant home Mrs. Packer, a woman of re- finement and culture, presides with graceful dignity, vying with her husband in extending the hospitalities of the house to their many guests. In politics Mr. Packer is a sturdy Republican. He was brought up in the Bap- tist faith, but is now a Methodist and a trus- tee of the church. Mrs. Packer belongs to the same church.
REDERICK FARNSWORTH, one of the prominent wealthy citizens of New London, Conn., was born in the neigh- boring city of Norwich in 1842, and is a son of the late Dr. Ralph and Eunice W. (Bill- ings) Farnsworth.
The Farnsworth family is of English origin. Three persons of this name came to America in the seventeenth century, namely: Joseph, of Dorchester, Mass., about 1632; Thomas, who settled in New Jersey in 1681; and Mat- thias, whose name appears in the records of Lynn, Mass., in 1657. Matthias Farnsworth,
a sturdy yeoman, settled in Groton, Mass., about 1660 (see Matthias Farnsworth and his Descendants in America, a monograph by Claudius Buchanan Farnsworth, of Pawtucket, R. I., published in 1891). Several succeed- ing generations of the family lived in Groton, including Amos, the great-grandfather of the subject of this biographical sketch, and Amos, Jr., his grandfather, the latter a well-to-do farmer and an active military man. He was one of the minute-men, ready for action when war was brewing between the colonies and the mother country, and fought in the Revo- lution; and after the war he retained his con- nection with the State militia. As an officer he was first commissioned Ensign, then First Lieutenant of artillery. In 1783, at the close of the Revolution, he was made Captain of the old Groton Artillery Company; and he was afterward promoted to the rank of Major of artillery, receiving a commission dated July 1, 1794, signed by Samuel Adams as Governor. Major Farnsworth attained the great age of ninety - three years and six months, passing away in October, 1847. His wife, who was then ninety years of age, fol- lowed him within two weeks. Five children were born to this couple - Luke, Amos, Ralph, Walter, and Elizabeth. The daugh- ter, who never married, lived nearly as long as her father, dying in Groton in her ninety- second year.
Ralph Farnsworth was born in Groton, Mass., September 20, 1795, and was grad- uated from Harvard in 1821. He subse- quently taught school for a while in Ports- mouth, N.H. For some time he studied medicine with Dr. Warren, of Boston ; and, the honorary degree of Master of Arts having been conferred on him by Dartmouth College in 1824, he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Harvard Medical School in
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1826. In 1827 he settled in Norwich, Conn., where he was in active practice some forty- eight years, until 1875. Dr. Farnsworth was large and well proportioned, six feet in height, and weighing nearly two hundred pounds. He was strong and active, capable of a wonderful amount of labor; and one of his contemporaries expressively said he was several men in one. He died July 16, 1875.
On November 25, 1828, he was married to Eunice W., daughter of Coddington Billings, Esq., of New London. The Billings family has lived in this part of Connecticut for sev. eral generations, and accumulated property here. Coddington Billings, who was born in 1770, was a prominent attorney and a bank president. He married a Miss Wheeler. Mrs. Eunice W. Billings Farnsworth was born in 1804, and lived to be seventy-three years old, dying at her old home on East Main Street, Norwich, in 1877. She was the mother of nine children, seven sons and two daughters. Only three sons attained ma- turity; and one of these, Charles, met his death by drowning when thirty-one years of age, in April, 1867. He left a son Charles, who is now in Colorado Springs, Col. The surviving children of Dr. Farnsworth are: Coddington Billings Farnsworth, of Norwich, Conn. ; and Frederick; of New London, whose personal history is here outlined.
Frederick Farnsworth received a liberal education, graduating from the scientific de- partment of Yale College in 1867. During the year 1869 he served in the Nursery Hos- pital in New York City; and he subsequently went to Philadelphia, where he lived until 1887. In that year he removed to New Lon- don, and took up his abode in his present res- idence, 25 Federal Street. This dwelling, which is over one hundred years old, was originally the mansion-house of a Mr. Led-
yard, and for some fifty years was the resi- dence of William W. Billings, Mr. Farns- worth's uncle. It is a fine specimen of the generous architecture of a century ago.
Mr. Farnsworth was married in 1879 in Philadelphia to Miss Lydia Warner Sander- son, who died March 12, 1888, in the pleas- ant New London home. He has been a mem- ber of the University Club of New York City since 1890, and belongs to the Thames Club of New London.
ICHARD SILL GRISWOLD, of Old Lyme, a retired manufacturer, was born in this town, June 3, 1845. He is the son of Richard Sill and Frances A. (Mather) Griswold and a representative of some of the oldest and best New England families. His first American ancestor, Mat- thew Griswold, was born in England, came to this country in 1630, settled first at Windsor, Conn., and later, in 1639, at Saybrook, fixing his residence in that part of the colony which in 1666 was set off as the town of Lyme. His estate at the mouth of the "Great River " has since been known by the name of Black Hall. He married in 1639 Anna, daughter of the first Henry Wolcott, of Windsor, and had five children. He died in 1698.
His son, Matthew Griswold, Jr., was born here in 1653, and died in 1715. The Rev. George Griswold, son of Matthew, Jr., and Phebe (Hyde) Griswold, was born in 1692, and died in 1761. The next in this line, his son, George Griswold, of Giant's Neck, Conn., was born September 19, 1726, and died in 1816; and the grandfather of Richard S. Griswold was George Griswold, born at Giant's Neck in 1777, a member of the firm of N. L. & George Griswold, of New York City, china merchants, one of the leading
RICHARD S. GRISWOLD.
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importing houses of that time. He succeeded in building up a large fortune, and died in 1858.
He was twice married. By his first wife, Elizabeth Woodhull, he had five children, three of whom grew up, and by his second wife, Maria M. Cummins, four children. Of these nine, one, John N. A. Griswold, the youngest - born, is now living at Newport, R. I., at an advanced age.
Richard Sill Griswold, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in New York City in 1809. He was educated at Yale College, and after his graduation in the class of 1829 went to China as his father's agent, remain- ing there several years. During this time he was taken into partnership by his father. About 1840 he erected a mansion in Lyme, and made this town his residence, still con- tinuing his business in New York City. He was a capable and successful business man. He first married Louisa G. Mather, a descend- ant of the Rev. Richard Mather, of England, who died in Dorchester, Mass., in 1669. She died leaving no children; and on March 31, 1841, he married her sister, Frances A. Mather, daughter of James and Caroline (Tinker) Mather. Three children were born to them, as follows: Louisa Mather; Richard Sill, subject of this sketch; and Frances Augusta. Louisa M. Griswold is the wife of General Joseph G. Perkins, of Lyme; and Frances Augusta is the wife of Professor N. M. Ferry, of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.
Richard Sill Griswold died in 1847, at the age of thirty-eight years. Ilis widow, Mrs. Frances A. M. Griswold, lived until Decem- ber 19, 1889.
The present Richard Sill Griswold received his education in New Haven and in New York City. After this he went to sea for his
health, and made many voyages across the Atlantic and elsewhere. He was afterward in the brass-manufacturing line for several years, being of the firm of Brown & Brothers, Waterbury, Conn., for many years a leading house in this business. He has since retired from active mercantile life. Mr. Griswold is a Knight Templar and a thirty-second degree Mason. He has served as a Representative to the State legislature.
In 1869 Mr. Griswold was married to Rosa Elizabeth Brown, daughter of Dr. James and Charlotte E. (Todd) Brown, of Waterbury, Conn. They have eight children, as follows: Richard Sill, Jr., a practising physician at Hartford, Conn., and a graduate of Bellevue Medical College, New York; James Brown, a physician in New London, Conn., and a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City; Daniel Eddie, a lawyer in New York City; George, now in school and living at home with his parents; Harry, in New York City, studying at the Conservatory of Music; Rosa Elizabeth ; Joseph P .; and Woodward Haven, a boy of twelve years.
Six years ago Mrs. Griswold established the Boxwood School for young ladies, in which some twenty pupils are being prepared for college. Mr. Griswold has greatly en- larged and improved the buildings, and the school itself is of a high grade. They re- moved to their present home in 1890.
ELSON A. BACON, a retired lumber dealer of Old Lyme, Conn., was born in this town, May 7, 1841, a son of Almond and Margaret S. (Clarke) Bacon. His grandfather, Mathew Bacon, who was born in Middletown, Conn., in 1785, was a farmer and also proprietor of the Bacon House, which
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