USA > Connecticut > New London County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of New London County, Connecticut > Part 45
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Charles Phelps Williams was twice married. His first wife, whose maiden name was Smith, left one daughter. On June 11, 1861, he married Georgia P. Babcock, daughter of Courtland and Elizabeth C. Babcock, of Phil- adelphia. Her father was born March 25, 1806, and died here February 10, 1853. Her parents were married August 3, 1834. They had five children. Courtland Babcock, one of their two sons, died in Stonington in April, 1896, leaving a widow and four children. One daughter, Louise Babcock, is the wife of a Mr. Tillinghast, of New York. Her sis- ters, Amelia C. Babcock and Elizabeth (Mrs. Williams), also live in that city. A son and daughter were born to Charles Phelps and Georgia P. Williams, namely : Georgia, wife of George Henry Warren, residing in New York City, and having two children - Con- stance and George; and Charles P., the special subject of this sketch.
Charles P. Williams completed his educa- tion abroad. The beautiful place where he lives, containing one hundred and forty acres, is a part of his father's large estate. About five miles from here he has a large stock farm known as Highland Farm, where he keeps a dairy of one hundred cows. He also owns
from twenty to thirty horses. In the past he has done a large retail business in live stock, and he purposes going into the wholesale trade and shipping to Providence.
Mr. Williams was married in 1889, in New York City, to Miss Elizabeth I'. Brooks, of Minneapolis, Minn. Her father, William F. Brooks, was a merchant in that city; and her widowed mother, Annie Oakley Brooks, still lives there. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have two children : Elizabeth, six years old; and Georgia, aged three.
Mr. Williams is a member of Union and Calumet Clubs, of New York City, the first named the oldest in the country. He was also at one time a member of the Metropoli- tan Club. "Stone Ridge," Mr. Williams's beautiful residence, stands upon an eminence, and may be seen miles away. It affords a fine view of the Sound from two sides; and on the other two long rows of hills tower, one above the other, losing themselves in the horizon. The approaches are by two beautiful gateways, the first from the highway as one comes from Stonington, from which a lengthy, circular drive leads to the front entrance of the man- sion, the other, at some distance below, lead- ing to the fine large barns and carriage-house. The massive stone pillars of these broad gate- ways are noteworthy for their architectural design.
EORGE W. FENGAR, * a retired mer- chant, residing at 10 Williams Street, New London, Conn., was born in this city in 1826. His parents were George W. and Fannie (Boulton) Fengar. His pa- ternal grandfather was an Englishman by birth. He came to Connecticut at the time of the Revolutionary War, and settled in Waterford. At his death he left three sons and three daughters. All of these children
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lived to be married and have families, and some survived to old age.
The senior George W. Fengar was a native of Waterford. He married Fannie Boulton, who was born in New London jn 1809. Three children were the fruit of their union, namely: George W., subject of this sketch ; Oliver Fengar, who died here in 1873, at the age of forty-four, leaving three children; and Frances, widow of Peter Bromley, also of this city. George W. Fengar, the father, died in 1831 ; and the mother, who was left a widow at the age of twenty-two, lived to the age of sixty-seven, dying in 1876. The children were all very young when they were left fatherless.
George W., the elder of the two sons, had limited educational advantages in his child- hood, attending school but one term. At the age of nine years, being obliged to begin work, he went into the livery stable of the old City Hotel; and from that time on he earned his own living. When he was eighteen years old, he entered the employ of Hobron & Den- nis in the meat business; and after twelve years' experience with them he began driving a meat wagon for himself. For twenty-five years he was located at 14 Main Street, being for eighteen years a member of the firm of John Dennis & Co., later known under the style of G. W. Fengar & Co., and for seven years with Roswell W. Tinker. During the war he furnished meat to a garrison, having as many as fifteen hundred to feed at one time. After he had made a contract to furnish meat at twelve and a half cents a pound, prices advanced, causing him to lose money. In 1878 he retired from business. In politics he votes independently. He has had a good political record, but he has never held office.
On October 24, 1854, Mr. Fengar was united in marriage with Mary Rixford, who
was born here June 14, 1830. Her father, Elijah Rixford, was a stone-mason, and died in this city at the age of sixty years; and her mother, Mary Dart Rixford, died January 1. 1889, at the age of eighty-nine years. Mr. and Mrs. Rixford had reared but two of their four children : Harriet, who became the wife of Charles Bentley, and died in 1883, at the age of fifty-nine, without children; and Mrs. Fengar, who is now almost entirely bereft of relatives, having but three cousins living. During the forty-two years of her wedded life she has moved but once, when her husband purchased their pleasant house, thirty-eight years ago, on the corner of Williams and Chappell Streets. Mr. and Mrs. Fengar joined the Hunting Street Baptist Church forty-seven years ago, and are now the oldest living members. For thirty years they have officiated on various committees.
AMES E. DEWOLF,* of Norwich, was born in Salem, Conn., December 5, . 1842, son of Edward and Sophia Jane (Latimer) DeWolf, and on the paternal side is of French descent. His grandparents, Ephraim and Elizabeth E. (Wood) DeWVolt. were both of Lyme, Conn. His father, Ed- ward DeWolf, was born in Salem, where he died in April, 1893, in the eighty-third year of his age. He married in 1836 Sophia Jane Latimer, of Chesterfield, by whom he had six sons and one daughter - Thomas E .. John, George P., Frank, Henry P., Evelyn. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War the four elder sons enlisted as defenders of the Union with the free consent of their father. who said that he might as well lose his sons as his country. Thomas lost his life in 186.4. at the age of twenty-four. He was mortally wounded in the battle of Winchester, w.Is
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taken prisoner with Lieutenant John T. Ma-' ginnis, and was exchanged from Libby Prison. John F. participated in General Sheridan's raid, and, while at Petersburg, fell sick and died. Ile fills an unknown grave. George served with his brother John in the first Con- necticut Cavalry. He was afterward a paint dealer in Spencer, Mass. Frank is a farmer, and lives upon the homestead in Salem. Henry P. is a farmer in Norwich. Evelyn married Frank Rogers.
James E., the second son of his parents and the special subject of this sketch, was under General Banks at Port Hudson, and saw fif- teen months of service in the Union army. Upon his return from the war he became a patrolman on the Norwich police force. Dur- ing the two years in which he held the position he made some important arrests, and he after- ward served on the special police force for several years. In July, 1869, he became en- gaged in the business of undertaking, in part- nership with Henry Allen, Sr. After the death of Mr. Allen, his son Amos took his place in the firm, and with Mr. DeWolf con- tinued to carry on the business a number of years .. In 1894 Amos Allen went to Califor- nia, and from that time till May, 1897, when Mr. DeWolf retired to his farm, a third part- ner was associated with him. Mr. DeWolf's place is situated just outside the town limits, on the Thomasville road, at the famous old Trading Cove.
Mr. DeWolf married his second wife, for- merly Lizzie H. Lucas, in May, 1877. She was born and reared on this farm, being the daughter of Joseph Lucas, who was a steam- boat engineer employed on the Connecticut River. Mrs. De Wolf was one of a family comprising eight daughters and one son, of whom six daughters and the son are living. Their mother died at the age of eighty. The
father survived until he reached his ninety- second year. Mr. DeWolf has been a lifelong student of natural history, and is a great lover of dogs and horses, being one of those favored persons to whom the sagacious animals are in- stinctively attracted, and whom they love and obey. He takes the greatest care of his ani- mals, and keeps them always in excellent con- dition. Mr. DeWolf is one of a plucky and persevering family who have always shown a public spirit and a strong sense of the respon- sibility of life.
LIVER WOLCOTT SISSON,* of Colchester, a retired contractor and builder, was born in Ellington, Tol- land County, Conn., December 9, 1820, son of Oliver and Lucretia (Tiffany) Sisson. He belongs to the Rhode Island Sissons. an o.d Colonial family.
Mr. Sisson's grandfather, Jonathan Sisson, born in 1750. came to Lyme in the year 1800 with his brother Thomas, and died in that town about 1832. . Thomas Sisson went to Hartford, where his son Thomas is to-day a druggist. Grandfather Sisson owned a farm of one hundred acres or more two miles from Pleasant Valley on Eight Mile River, on which he had a grist-mill and a saw-mill. His wife was a Bliven, and bore him eleven children, five sons and six daughters. They. together with the Ransoms and Loomises, had thirty children, all told. Gran Imother Sisson lived to be about eighty years old, and was the beloved and delightful friend of all her grandchildren, of whom there was a large number. She had sparkling black eyes and a vivacious and always cheerful nature. Two of her sons, Oliver and Nath in, were sailors; and Nathan was lost at sea going down, it was supposed, with his vessel and all on board. as I nothing was ever heard from any of the crew.
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Oliver, father of the subject of this sketch, was born at Hopkinton, R.I. In his youth and carly manhood he went across the Atlan- tic to Liverpool several times, when it took at least three months to make the round trip. He left the water when he married, in 1817, and began as a farmer on rented land in Ellington, where his first three children were born. His wife was Lucretia Tiffany, of Salem, daughter of Ebenezer Tiffany. She died in 1881, at the advanced age of nearly ninety-one years. She was a noble-hearted woman and a model mother. The Rev. Mr. Willard said the last ten years of her life vere a perpetual Sabbath. Her children 're: Allen, born 1817; William, born 1818; 'ver, born 1820; Ebenezer, born in Salem; Catherine Tiffany, born in Lyme in 1825, the widow of William Patten, to whom 'as married February 22, 1853. Mr. died in Colchester. September, 1877, age of sixty-four years. He began . b with but little capital, but by energy management accumulated a comfort- ty, and at his death left a pleasant
an
abl. hom irty acres of land in the borough to his widow.
of Co Olis . 'cott Sisson, when eight years orthern Vermont with his great-
old, we. uncle, J rning, a noted horse jockey
Hartford, and makin
and deale had a large trade in Boston, New Haven. Riding horses elf generally useful, Mr. Vermont six years. In teen, he went to Stoning- `ve years as an appren- nter's trade, and had a s as to food and cloth- oplied. In 1849 Mr. fever," and in No- ew York to go via San Francisco.
Sisson rema 1834, a youth. ton, where he tice to learn th hard time of it, ing being but sca Sisson caught the vember he started .. the Isthmus of l'a.
Upon the evening of his arrival, in February, 1850, he went ashore; and the next morning he began work at his trade at fourteen dollars a day. During the whole of the time he was in California he never worked for less than twelve dollars a day, and sometimes he made as high as twenty dollars by working over time. In 1851 he came home to Connecticut via the Isthmus, the journey occupying about twenty days.
In 1853 he was married to Mary Ann, daughter of John A. Niles, of Salem. She died six years later, leaving one son, John Sisson, who resides in Wallingford. He is employed by the Silver Plate Manufactory as a travelling agent, and has been all over America and Europe. He married Janette Watrous, of Essex. She died in the summer of 1895 in San Francisco, where she had gone with her son for her health. The son. Elli- son Cooper Sisson, is in the West in Oregon.
Mr. Oliver W. Sisson has been a con- tractor and builder in Norwich, Hartford, and Salem, and has built many large and im- portant structures in this section of the State. As a politician he has always voted in the ranks of the Democratic party. For the last ten years he has made his home with his sister.
ENRY AUGUSTUS BROWN," of the well-known Brown Paint Com- pany, of New London, Conn., was born in the adjoining town of Waterford on December 28, 1830. His parents were Henry and Lueretia (Smith) Brown. Charles Brown, his paternal grandfather, also a native of this county, was a mariner in early life, attaining the position of mate on a deep sea merchantman. Later he was for many years engaged in farming on Jordan Cone. He married, and he and his wife reared four sons
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and three daughters. With the exception of one daughter, they all married and had fam- ilies. All have now passed away. Grand- father Brown died in middle life; while his wife lived to be an old lady, dying in 1836.
Their son Henry was born at the homestead in 1799, and became a prosperous farmer, ac- quiring a good estate. He was twice mar- ried. His first wife. Lucy Prentiss, died in the prime of life, leaving five children, three of whom are now living, namely: Charles A., who resides on Town Hill; J. P., who is a Baptist preacher in this city, and Frances, who also live on Town Hill. Lucretia Smith, who became his second wife, had four sons and three daughters, four of whom are now living: Ellen C., Mrs. Perkins, of this city, a widow; Henry Augustus ; John N., of this city; and Phoebe, wife of Albert G. Langham, of Waterford. The father died about 1876, and the mother in 1884, at the age of eighty years. They were both highly respected members of the Waterford Baptist Church.
Henry A. Brown was educated in the com- mon school, and worked on his father's farm until he was seventeen years of age, when he began to learn the sail-maker's trade with Thomas Holstrom, with whom he remained four years. He went into business for him- self in New London in 1853, and was prosper- ously engaged in sail-making till 1868, when he sold out, and then turned his attention to ship-chandlery. The firm of H. A. Brown & Co. also engaged in canning fruit and vege- tables, running the plant until 1883, when they sold out to Gorton Brothers. For three years thereafter Mr. Brown was a commercial traveller for Nichols & Harris, introducing a specialty in New York, Pennsylvania, and New England. He is now manager of a stock company organized to carry on the wholesale
and retail paint business. Their plant, at the corner of State and Bradley, has been a paint store for a quarter of a century, Mr. Brown having bought George E. Damon's interest.
In October, 1853, at the age of twenty- three, he married Susan C., daughter of Alvin B. Chappell. Her father was captain of a coasting-vessel. He died in 1884, at the age of seventy-five, having long survived his wife, who died at the age of forty-six, leaving one child, Mrs. Brown. The pleasant home of Mr. and Mrs. Brown is at 17 Franklin Street. Their only child, a son named Elmer Brown, died at the age of two and a half years. Mr. Brown is a highly respected member of the Second Baptist Church, in which he officiates as chairman of the Society and Church Com- mittee. In politics he is an independent voter.
OSEPH A. DOANE,+ Postmaster of Preston City, was born here, August 23, 1820. He is a descendant in the ninth generation from John Doane, who came from England a few years after the " May- flower " Pilgrims, was living at Plymouth in 1630 and 1633, and was afterward one of the founders of Eastham, Mass., where he died in 1686. The family coat of arms is still pre- served. The lineage is traced from the immi- grant ancestor through John, J., born 1634, who died in 1708; John, third; Elisha; Jo- seph; Joseph, Jr. : Captain John and Joseph H. Doane to Joseph A. The grandfather, Captain John Doane, son of Joseph, Jr., a prominent resident of Cape Cod, was born July 23. 1773, and removed to Norwich, Conn., in 1805. He married Eunice, daugh- ter of Joseph Howes, of Chatham, Mass., a member of a well-known Cape Cod family. Captain Doane was a seafaring man, and sailed to foreign ports. His ship was sunk
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off Charleston by the British. He was at one time a man of wealth, and built the first steamboat of Norwich; but he met with heavy reverses, and left only a moderate fortune at his decease. He died in New York City, April 13, 1818. Mrs. Doane died in Massa- chusetts, August 9, 1855, in the seventy- ninth year of her age. Both rest in the old Norwich Town cemetery. They had nine children, as follows: Marrinet, born in Chatham, October 2, 1794; Joseph H., born March 31, 1797, father of the subject of this sketch; Eunice, born in 1803; John G., born in 1805; Elisha, born in Norwich, December 29, 1807; Elizabeth, born in 1810; Emily, born in 1813; an infant daughter, who died in . "no; and Harriet, who died in infancy in 1817. iceph H. Doane, the second son, started ' as a clerk in the store of James Treat, `ame a prominent merchant and manu- the firm name of Treat & Doane, " ! Doane & Treat, being long well a
kı this section. He married Frances Trc in Preston City, January 13, 1799, daug She it is James and Polly (Stanton) Treat. ended from Richard Treat, born, Pitminster, Somerset County, Englal. 84, who died soon after his ar- rival in ersfield, Conn., October 11,
Robert I
1669. three sons: Richard, Jr .; 10 became the Governor of 'ames Treat, whose son, the ne father of the Rev. Sam- dfather of Mrs. Doane. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. James, John, Emily, ry, Juliet. The only
Connecticu
Rev. Salmo .:
uel Treat, t
The eight chii
Doane were: William, Eunic . members of the . ow living are: Will - "innati; Juliet, who
iam, who resides
is in Cincinnati wi.
other; Henry, who
resides in Brookly.
New York City; and
is in business in . A., the subject
of this sketch. The father died October 22, 1854; and the mother died April 15, 1881, in the eighty-third year of her age.
Joseph A. Doane, the eldest son of his par- ents, received a common-school education, with the additional advantage of six months' study at the Plainfield Academy. Entering his father's store at the age of sixteen, for many years he led an active mercantile life. When the war broke out, he went to the front as sutler in the Sixteenth Connecticut Regi- ment. He was captured by the Confederates at Plymouth, N.C., April 20, 1863. The garrison was marched to Tarboro, N.C., and * thence went by rail to Atlanta Prison. From that place he was taken to Savannah, and then to Charleston, and from that city to the race course and the stockade. He was held a prisoner five months.
Mr. Doane married December 8, 1886, Mrs. Lucy L. Elliot, widow of Calvin P. Elliot, and daughter of Robert P. and Polly C. Chase, natives of the State of Maine. Mrs. Elliot lost her first husband, December 30, 1872, and was left with two children - Mary Ella and Arthur C. Mary Ella married Frank G. Pope, and has one daughter, Mabel Alice, wife of Burt Smith. The Popes reside in Somerville, Mass. Arthur C. Elliot is a resi- dent of Brooklyn and Montclair. He married Emily E. Ponderhoof, and has two children ---- Mildred and Arthur C., Jr. Mrs. Doane had three brothers, who were all officers in the Civil War, namely : Alonzo Chase, who was shot on the field; Henry H., who was wounded at Baton Rouge, and died in New Orleans: and I.conard Chase, who had three horses killed under him, and who died in Kentucky, where he was a band leader. Their father was a ship- builder and a teacher of band music.
Mr. and Mrs. Doane are both members of the Baptist church. Mr. Doane is a Republi-
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can, and, as mentioned above, is Postmaster of the town. He has served several terms in the State legislature. He now lives retired on the farm which his father settled in 1825. It was here that the Rev. Samuel Treat, his ancestor, was ordained in 1698. Preston City is not only one of the smallest cities in the world, but is a place of historic interest. Here was the home of Edward Mott, one of the prime movers in the taking of Fort Ticon- deroga; and the house in which he lived is still standing, now one hundred and fifty years old. The house in which George Wash- ington was entertained by Samuel Mott, of Bunker Hill renown, was torn down about fif- tecn years ago. Some of the legal lights of the State here read law with Judge Peters and with John M. Niles, and many other promi- nent names are connceted with the town.
LFRED FANNING BROWN,* of Jewett City, dealer in newspapers, periodicals, notions, and jewelry, was born in the town of Lisbon, February 17, 1822, his parents being John H. and Emme- line (Freeman) Brown. His paternal grand- father, who was a sea captain born in Eng- land, died in middle life, leaving two sons - John II. and Abijah - and two daughters. John HI. Brown was born in Warwick. R. I., in 1800, and died in Jewett City in 1859. He came to this place in 1828, moving into a new house he had built, and in which he lived up to the time of his death. This house is now owned by Alfred F. Brown, who has re- built and repaired it, and leases it to tenants. John H. Brown was a shoemaker by trade, and was known as conscientious and faithful in the performance of all life's duties. His wife, Emmeline, who survived him eighteen years, dying in 1878, was the daughter of a
French gentleman who came to America with General Lafayette, and fought for American independence. He married a lady of Ameri- can birth. John and Emmeline Brown, who were within three months of the same age, were married young, and reared a family of eleven children. The eldest, John H. Brown, Jr., born in August, 1820, was eighteen months older than Alfred F. All of this fam- ily are now deceased except Alfred F., Charles W. (the third child), and Mary, who is the wife of Washington Smith, of Canter- bury, Conn.
Alfred F. Brown received his elementary education in the public schools, and subse- quently attended a select school for two terms. Hc taught during three winters, be- ginning when only fifteen years old. At ten years of age he began to work out by the month, receiving three dollars per month for seven months, and bringing home twerty-one dollars. He continued working out summers for nine years, receiving five dollars per month the second season, seven dollars the third, and for the last two seasons twelve dollars per month. At twenty years of age, in 1842, he entered the employ of the Slater Mill Com- pany as overseer and loom fixer. Ten years later he caught the "gold fever," and went to California, sailing round the Horn in the new clipper ship "North America " with five hun- dred passengers, and being five months on the passage from New York to San Francisco. In 1855 he returned home, but in four months went back to California where he remained seven years longer. During the ten years of his. residence there, he mined for gold on his own account in all kinds of diggings. He made no big strikes, but came home with more than he had when he went away. He- has been engaged in business at his present stand for thirty years.
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At the age of twenty years Mr. Brown was united in marriage with Abigail Mason, of Jewett City, who bore him two children - Abby E. and Mary B. Abby is the wife of Denison J. Champlin, the jailer of Norwich. Mary died in middle life, the wife of Alonzo Allen. Mr. Brown. married for his second wife, in 1865, Betsey E. Brown; and by this union there is one son, Alfred Fanning Brown, Jr. For nineteen years Mr. Brown erved his fellow-townsmen as Postmaster, the ly public position he has held, as, although yal Republican and actively interested in ' ' affairs, he has not generally cared to be a date.
1 lan Geo of El was b
.. V. CHARLES J. HILL, * pastor of `he Congregational church in Ston- ington, Conn., was born in Port- February 2, 1830. His parents, Priscilla (Griffin) Hill, were both Ascent. George Hill, his father, Portsmouth in 1786. When a was the Captain of an artillery voung npan
as ready with his associates to h in 1814. He was a mer-
receive t chant in and afterward in Philadel- phia, wher ried on business until his death, Jan , 1857. He had nine children, se ; and two daughters, of whom four s one daughter are still living.
Charles J. 1 was fitted for c Philadelphia, am office of the city g: a most valuable es ated at Williams C. and studied for the years at the Union :. New York and during
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