USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Biographical review; this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Litchfield County, Connecticut > Part 49
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
learned more, he decided to study and become an architect. He managed to spend one winter in Norfolk, Conn., under the instruc- tion of the principal of the Norfolk Academy. There he went through algebra and six books of geometry.
When he was twenty-five years old, he had saved a little money from his carpenter work. Through the New York Tribune he saw that there was a college at McGrawville, N.Y., where a young man could earn his living and get an education at the same time. He de- cided to go to this college. So in the sum- mer of 1854 he set out for Central College, as it was called. When he got there, he found it was a very different place from what he had expected. It was open to both sexes and all colors, and was the gathering place of a queer set of cranks of all sorts. The teaching was poor, but still to the green country youth the experience was of immense value. His views were broadened and changed. He stayed at the college only a year and a half. In that time he went through algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, and studied some French and Latin. He soon proved himself to be by far the best mathematician in the college.
One of the students was a young woman named Angeline Stickney. She was a coun- try girl of great sensibility and of fine mental qualities. She was working her way through college, and as a Senior she helped in the teaching. Asaph Hall was one of her pupils in mathematics. Many were the problems he and his classmates contrived to puzzle their teacher, but they never were successful. When she was graduated, Asaph Hall was en- gaged to her. He decided that he had stayed long enough at McGrawville. His money was about gone, and the college was poor. So in 1855 they set out together for Wisconsin. Angeline Stickney had a brother there, and
455
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
she stayed at his house while Asaph tramped about the country in search of a school where they could teach. No school was open for them. They became tired of the flat, sickly country ; and, when spring came, they decided to leave. On the 31st of March, 1856, they were married. Then they started for Ann Arbor. Asaph entered the Sophomore and Junior classes in Ann Arbor University, studying mathematics and astronomy under Professor Brünnow. He found he could do good work in both these branches. His teacher encouraged him greatly. It was from bim that he acquired his taste for astronomy. Professor Brünnow was an excellent teacher; but he had trouble with his classes, and his work was so changed and broken up that young Hall decided to leave after he had been there but half a year.
He went with his wife to Shalersville, Ohio, and took charge of the academy there. They conducted it successfully for a year, pay- ing off all their debts and buying themselves new clothes, of which they were much in need. When the school was over, they had no idea where to turn next. Hall wanted to go back to Ann Arbor and study again; but there was a great storm on the lakes at that time, and his wife would not go. So they started East. He had had an offer from l'ro- fessor Bond, who was in charge of the Harvard College Observatory, of three dollars a week as assistant. Finally, he decided to accept it. Hle visited his old home in the summer ; and in the fall of 1857 he took his wife to Cambridge, and began his career as an astron- omer.
Very few young married men of this day would like to start in a profession at the age of twenty-nine on a salary of three dollars a week. But young Hall expected he would be able to pick up outside work. He thought he
could pursue his study in mathematics under Professor Benjamin Peirce, then at Harvard. So he entered on his new life full of hope. He took a couple of rooms on Concord Ave- nue, near the observatory, and began house- keeping. He soon found he could not carry out all his plans. There was some quarrel between Professor Peirce and Professor Bond, and he could not study with the former with- out offending his employer. He had to give up that plan. His work at the observatory required long hours, but he managed to study a little by himself. He studied mathematics and German at the same time by translating a German mathematical work. His little in- come was all caten up by simply the room rent. In order to live, he had to do outside work. By computing, making almanacs, and observing moon culminations, he doubled his salary, and managed to scrape along. His wife worked by his side faithfully, encourag- ing him, helping him in his studies, and doing all the housework with her own hands. Hall soon became a rapid, accurate, and skil- ful computer. Soon his employers saw how valuable he was; and they gradually increased his pay, till at last he drew a salary of six hundred dollars a year.
He stayed in the Cambridge Observatory till the year 1862. At that time the war had been going on for a year. The officers at the Naval Observatory at Washington had gone off into the service of either the North of the South. Men were needed to till their places. Hall was recommended to fill a position there. It was a good opening. He went to Washing ton, passed an examination, and was offered a place. In the fall of 1862 he went down to Washington to begin his work. The city was then in a ferment. Many of the office-hollers we're from the South. All sorts of jealousies ind meanness were rite in the departments of
456
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
the government ; but he kept out of all dis- putes, and settled down quietly to his work.
On January 2, 1863, he was appointed a Professor of Mathematics in the United States navy. After that his career was assured, for his position was for life. Starting as a farmer boy, then turning carpenter, pursuing mathe- matics with the idea of becoming an architect, finally he had found the best field for his labor in astronomy. Up to this time his struggle was a hard one. He had never known what it was to have a moment of relax- ation. It was toil from morning till night, and all that he did was for the personal bene- fit of others. After his appointment at Wash- ington. he was able to do work that counted for himself. So his public scientific career really began in 1862.
From 1862 to 1866 he worked on the nine- and-a-half-inch equatorial at the Naval Ob- servatory under Mr. James Ferguson, making observations and reducing his work. One night, while he was working alone in the dome, the trap-door by which it was entered from below opened, and a tall, thin figure, crowned by a stove-pipe hat, arose in the dark- ness. It turned out to be President Lincoln. He had come up from the White House with Secretary Stanton. He wanted to take a look at the heavens through the telescope. Pro- fessor Hall showed him the various objects of interest, and finally turned the telescope on the half-full moon. The President looked at it a little while, and went away. A few nights later the trap-door opened again, and the same figure appeared. He told Professor Hall that after leaving the observatory he had looked at the moon, and it was wrong side up as he had seen it through the telescope. He was puzzled, and wanted to know the cause. So he had walked up from the White House alone. Professor Hall explained to him how
the lens of a telescope gives an inverted image, and President Lincoln went away satisfied.
After 1866 Professor Hall worked as assist- ant on the prime vertical transit and the me- ridian circle. In 1867 he was put in charge of the meridian circle. From 1868 to 1875 he was in charge of the nine-and-a-half-inch equatorial; and from 1875 until his retire- ment, on October 15, 1891, he was in charge of the twenty-six-inch equatorial. It can thus be seen that his practical experience as an observing astronomer has been long and varied.
During his stay at the observatory he was sent on several expeditions for the govern- ment. In 1869 he was sent to Bering Strait on the ship "Mohican " to observe an eclipse of the sun. In those days one had to go to San Francisco by way of the Isthmus of Pan- ama. All the instruments had to be sent the same way, so it was a big undertaking. In 1870-71 he was sent to Sicily to observe another eclipse. In 1874 he went to Vladi- vostock, in Siberia, to observe a transit of Venus. He visited China and Japan on the way. In 1878 he headed an expedition to Colorado to observe the eclipse of the sun, and in 1882 he took a party to Texas to ob- serve another transit of Venus.
Although on these expeditions he did valu- able service, it has been at Washington with the twenty-six-inch equatorial that he has done his most important work. He has made studies of many double stars, to determine their distances and motions. He has also given a great deal of time to the study of the planet Saturn. He made an especial investi- gation of the rings of this planet, and also discovered the motion of the line of apsides of Hyperion, one of Saturn's satellites. But by far the most important discovery he has made,
457
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
the one that will connect his name with astronomy as long as the planets exist, was his discovery of the satellites of Mars. It had been thought by some old astronomer that perhaps Mars had satellites, but no one had been able to find them. In the fall of 1877 Mars was in a very favorable position to ob- serve, and Professor Hall turned his big tele- scope upon it. Hle searched night after night without finding anything new. He began to give up hope, but on the night of August 11 he discovered a little speck that turned out to be the outer satellite. Six days later he dis- covered the inner one. The discovery of these two little bodies (the smaller one being not more than fifteen miles in diameter) spread quickly among the observatories. The eager astronomers immediately began to find enough extra moons to supply another solar system. One observer insisted that there was one more moon at least, and Professor Hall was blamed as stupid for not seeing it; but after a thorough investigation it was shown that Professor Hall had discovered the two, and the only two, satellites of Mars.
This important discovery brought his name at once before the world at large, and was not slow in earning its reward. The Royal Astronomical Society presented him with a. gold medal, and he was given the Lalande prize from Paris. Since that time his work has been recognized as it should. He has be- come a member of the most important scien- tifie societies of this country and an honorary member of the royal scientific societies of England and Russia and of the French Acad- emy. The universities of the country have recognized his work, Yale and Harvard each giving him the degree of L.I.D. The very last honor conferred upon him is the Arago medal, just awarded to him by the French Academy of Sciences.
Personally, Professor Hall is a fine-looking man. He is tall and broad-shouldered. His forehead is high and deep. His eyes are clear and bright, in spite of years spent in gazing at the stars. He has always been strong and healthy. He is fond of the open air, and has always taken exercise. So, in spite of his long years of hard work, he is now in perfect health. His success has not changed him in the least. He is always ready to help those who want to learn any- thing from him.
His writings have appeared mainly in astronomical magazines and in the government reports of the work done in the Naval Observ- atory. They are all the results of practical astronomical work, and are mostly of a tech- nical character. Consequently, they are of little interest to general readers. He has often been asked to write something for popu- lar reading ; but up to this time he has never consented to do so, thinking that there is al- ready enough of such literature.
Professor Hall is a self-made man. llis life has not been an easy one. Every bit of his education, every one of his successes, has been gained by his own hard work. It was a steady uphill pull from the time he was thir- teen years old until his appointment at Wash- ington. In his younger days he saw many hard times. During a large share of that part of his life he had only one good snit of clothes in his possession. He and his wife were obliged to save every penny. From his early training and from such experience his habits were formed. Naturally, they are of the simplest kind. He does not care for the Im. aries of modern life. The comforts of a plain home are all he wants. He still lives almost as simply as when he was earning three dol- lars a week under Professor Bond. He has never cared for society merely tor its own
458
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
sake, but he has been prominent in scientific circles. He is a quiet man, who never pushes himself forward; yet, when he has anything to say, people are glad to listen to it.
In his ideas on politics, science, and relig- ion he is liberal and yet conservative; that is to say, he has no objection to letting other people have their own thoughts and live their own lives. He can see no reason why science and real religion cannot be reconciled. His views on religion and politics are sound. He does not care, however, to have anything to do with politics. He hates its corruption, meanness, and party quarrelling. He has al- ways been a little conservative in his scientific life. He has never been led into wild the- ories of no value. His work has been solid, earnest, and thorough, and will last forever. He is a widely read man, fond of study. He loves his work. So now, since his retirement in 1891, he continues his studies and investi- gations. He lives a quiet, simple life at his home in Washington, still advancing the cause of astronomy.
EORGE W. MORRIS, one of Bridge- water's leading farmers and an ex- member of the legislature, was born in Roxbury, Conn., April 23, 1826. His parents were Winthrop and Cornelia (Sher- man) Morris, his father being a son of Daniel Morris, a native of Newtown, Conn., who set- tled in Roxbury, where he acquired a large tract of land, which he cleared and improved into a good farm. Grandfather Morris was one of those industrious and sturdy settlers whose foresight and perseverance have resulted in the development of the fertile agricultural resources of Litchfield County, and he became a prominent figure in the early history of the town. He died when he was about eighty
years of age. He and his wife, formerly Eliz- abeth Burritts, who lived to reach an ad- vanced age, reared a family of ten children; namely, Daniel, Israel, Janies, Gould, Sally, Maria, Nancy, Betsey, Polly, and Winthrop.
Winthrop Morris inherited a part of his father's property, his portion consisting of one hundred and twenty-five acres; and he successfully followed agricultural pursuits for many years, or until his retirement from ac- tive labor. He bought a house in Roxbury Centre, where the declining years of his life were passed; and he died at the age of seventy-six. He was a Whig in politics, and was actively interested in public affairs, ably serving in various town offices; and he at- tended the Episcopal church. His first wife, Cornelia Sherman Morris, died young, leaving seven children, namely: Daniel; Sally; James; George W., the subject of this sketch; Roxy; William; and Theodore. His second wife was Amy Mallory.
George W. Morris received his education at the Roxbury Academy, and in his early man- hood applied himself to agriculture and the manufacturing of hats. He finally purchased the Thompson farm of one hundred and thirty acres, situated in the town of Bridgewater, and here engaged in general farming and to- bacco growing. He remodelled his buildings, erected new tobacco barns, and improved the fertility of his land, which was made to pro- duce large crops of a superior quality, and thus realized handsome profits in return for his labors. He has likewise conducted a dairy with good results, but of late his attention has been devoted to the fattening of cattle for the markets. In addition to the above farm Mr. Morris owns the old Morris home- stead of one hundred and twenty acres in Roxbury, on the Shepaug River. This farm abounds with rich mines of garnet.
459
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
Mr. Morris was united in marriage with Sylvia B. Castle, daughter of John and Ade- line Castle, on November 15, 1854, and has had six children, as follows: Sylvia; John, who married Bertha Armstrong; Susan L., who is a teacher; Walter, who married Lettie Stoddard; Fanny, who married George W. Drakeley; and Martha Jane. Mrs. Morris died in 1887, aged sixty years.
Mr. Morris has uniformly supported the principles of the Democratic party, and has served with ability in some of the important town offices. In 1861 and again in 1880 he represented the town in the legislature, labor- ing faithfully for maintenance of good govern- ment and the best interests of his constit- uency. He has long held an influential place among the leading residents of Bridgewater, and is highly respected.
EORGE C. WOODRUFF, editor of the Litchfield Inquirer, was born in Litchfield, Conn., June 23, 1861, eldest son of George M. Woodruff, railroad commissioner of Connecticut, and of Eliza- beth Parsons Woodruff, formerly of Phishing, L.I. Ilis grandfather was the late Ilon. George C. Woodruff, of Litchfield; and his grandmother Woodruff was a sister of the late Origen Storrs Seymour, Chief Justice of the State of Connecticut.
He fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, and entered Yale College in the fall of 1881. He entered Amherst College in the fall of 1883, and graduated in 1885. Ile has also received from Amherst College the degree of M.A. in course. In the fall of 1885 he entered Union Theological Seminary, New York City, and graduated from that institution in 1888. He was ordained to the ministry at Litchfield in the early part of May, 1888.
From June, 1888, till October, 1889, he was superintendent of the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society of Boston for the State of Colorado. He made his head- quarters at Colorado Springs, but travelled all over the State.
On November 5, 1889, he married in Balti- more Miss Lucy Este Crawford, of that city. On January 1, 1890, he took charge of the Congregational church at Green Mountain Falls, Col., also doing general missionary work all over the State. This position he re- signed in April, 1891, and came back to Litchfield with his wife. December 1. 1891, he took charge of Faith Chapel, the South Washington Mission of the New York Ave- nue Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C. July 1, 1894, he gave up this charge, resigned from the presbytery of Washington, and de- mitted from the ministry, with the intention of going into journalism. October 1, 1804. he bought the Litchfield Inquirer of C. R. Duffie, Jr., and has since continued to publish that old and well-known weekly.
In politics Mr. Woodruff is a Democrat. though as an editor he never fails to score his own party when he thinks it is needed as well as his opponents. He has no children. Mr. Woodruff is a member of Psi Upsilon College Fraternity, and is also a Royal Arch Mason. He has a brother, James P. Woodruff, Esq .. of Litchfield, and a sister, Mrs. Mexandel McNeill, of New York City.
LOYD FROST HITCHCOCK, hard- ware merchant of Woodbury, was born in Ansonia, Conn., November 6, 18.41. son of Edmund W. and Angeline (Terrill) Hitchcock. He belongs to one of the old Colonial families of Connecticut, being . lineal descendant of Matthias Hitchcock, who
460
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
in the company of the Rev. John Davenport landed at Boston July 26, 1637, and June 4, 1639, formed with others a settlement at what was afterward called New Haven, Conn. De- cember 3, 1851, an application being made for a town grant, it was finally argned and or- dered that William Andrews, Richard Berkely, Matthias Hitchcock, Edward Patterson, and Edward Hitchcock "shall have the neck of land by the seaside beyond the cove and all meadows belonging to it below the island with a rock upon it. They are to have the neck entire to themselves." The deed then goes on to state the boundaries, and adds that said grantees are to pay to the town "one penny an acre for five hundred acres for every rate and for their meadows, as other men do." Later we find that fifteen pounds was offered as a final settlement instead of the annual rental. This was accepted, and used in part payment for a bell purchased in Boston, which is supposed to be the bell now in the court- house in New Haven. According to this agreement the town gave a deed to John Thompson, Thomas Smith, James Denison, and Eliakim Hitchcock, a son of Matthias, including the east end of a pond by the beach, called Black Pond. Matthias Hitch- cock signed the plantation contract in 1639. The town was at first called South End Neck, and was renamed New Haven in 1640.
The children of Matthias Hitchcock were: Eliakim, Nathaniel, John, and Elizabeth. Nathaniel was married January 8, 1670, to Elizabeth Moss, who bore him the following children: Elizabeth, Nathaniel, Abiah, John, Ebenezer, and Mary. Ebenezer, who was born April 9, 1689, married Anna Perkins in 17II, settled in Woodbridge, and their union was blessed by five children: Timothy, Ebenezer, Jonathan, Joseph, and Anna. Ebenezer, Jr., reared seven children: Tim-
othy, Ebenezer, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Jesse, Hannah, and Joseph. Timothy, who was the great-grandfather of Floyd Frost Hitchcock, was born December 7, 1748. He was a teacher and also a farmer. A man of ability and understanding, he held many offices of trust in Woodbridge, Conn., where his life- time was spent. He died August 6, 1820. His wife, whose maiden name was Abigail Clark, was born in 1755, and died in 1854. They were the parents of eight children: Abigail, Denzel, Clark, Anna, Lydia, Timo- thy, Elizabeth, and Bethiah. Clark Hitch- cock, grandfather of Floyd Frost Hitchcock, was born March 8, 1789, in Woodbridge, and there received his education. In 1810 he went to Norfolk, Va., where he was success- fully engaged in mercantile business for fif- teen years. The dreaded cholera then devas- tating the portion of the State where he was living, he lost his wife and his property. This wife, whose maiden name was Abigail Perkins, was a daughter of Peter Perkins, of Bethany, Conn. She left two children, Ed- mund W. and Mary. Clark Hitchcock subse- quently redeemed his fallen fortunes, and, marrying again, spent the rest of his life on a plantation in Virginia.
Edmund W. Hitchcock was born in Nor- folk, Va., in 1813. He and his sister were sent to Connecticut to be educated; and there he learned the shoemaker's trade, at which he worked in different places, remaining some years in Bethany, Conn. While in that town, he was appointed Captain of a company of State militia, and took an active interest in military matters. He died at the age of sixty-two. His wife, who is now a well-pre- served woman of seventy-nine, is a daughter of Lyman Terrill, a farmer of Bethany. She reared the following children : Virgil E., born December 21, 1838; Homer S., born Decem-
461
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
ber 23, 1839; Leonidas, born August 7, 1841 ; Henry, born April 25, 1843; and Floyd F., the subject of this sketch.
Floyd F. Hitchcock received a good com- mon-school education. In 1862 he entered the establishment of George B. Lewis, of Woodbury, to learn the tinsmith's trade, and remained eight years. He then bought the business of Mr. Lewis in the Hollow, and- carried it on successfully for eight years, the stock then consisting of stoves and tinwarc. In 1878 he purchased the Woodruff Block on Main Street, which he rebuilt on a larger scale, and which is now one of the finest busi- ness blocks in the town. It accommodates, besides Mr. Hitchcock's establishment, a meat market, a bakery, a harness shop, a suite of dental rooms, and the printing-office of the Woodbury Reporter. Mr. Hitchcock occupies part of three floors of this block, keeping in stock a first-class line of tinwarc, hardware, and plumbers' fittings of all kinds, also carriage-makers' and blacksmiths' sup- plies. He has for his dwelling an old Colon- ial house, most comfortably remodelled, ad- joining his place of business.
June 10, 1869, he was united in marriage with Eliza A., daughter of David and Sarah Maria ( Upson) Summers, of Woodbury ; and the following children have blessed their union : Lottie E., born March 13. 1870: Frank L., born June 15, 1872, manager of the firm of F. E. Wheeler & Co., tinsmiths and plumbers in Watertown, Conn. ; Henry S., born June 6, 1875, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1895, who is now book-keeper for his father; and Willie C., whose span of life embraced but five months. Politically. Mr. Hitchcock is a stanch Republican. He has been nominated for office several times, but has generally refused, his business requiring his time and attention. Being elected Judge
of Probate, however, in 1895, he entered upon the duties of that important office. He and his wife are members of the First Congrega- tional Church of Woodbury. A self-made man, Mr. Hitchcock has been remarkably successful; and his honorable record has won for him general esteem.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.