Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut, Part 102

Author: H. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1899
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1795

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut > Part 102

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lowing children: Martha, who married Franklin MacGrath, of Bridgeport, and died July 16, 1898; Mary, who died when about one year old; Susan M., wife of Erva B. Silliman, of Bridgeport; Horace Lovell, formerly a contractor for the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Co., who died August 13, 1895; Albert Hyde, who died at the age of three years; Miss Harriet L., a resident of Bridgeport; and GEORGE MANSON, a prominent business man of Bridgeport, now holding the po- sition of general superintendent for the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Co.

Mrs. Harriet A. (Ferre) Eames, who died September 3, 1889, was a native of Munson, Mass., born March 26, 1819. She belonged to a well-known New England family. and was a descendant of Charles Ferre and his wife Sarah (Hermon). (Charles Ferre. "Early settler." " Springfield," "1662." "Colonial grant land"). John Ferre (1), son of Charles, had a son John (2) who married Martha Mill. To this union there was born a son John (3) August 15. 1687. John Ferre (3) had a son John (4) who married Mary Sweetman. Their son John (5) married Sarah Terry, and had a son Solomon. Mrs. Eames' grandfather. a Revolutionary soldier, who was born in Springfield, Mass., September 26, 1752, and died February 8, 1835. His wife, Rhoda, daughter of Robert Sanderson, of Springfield, was born June 14, 1757, and died October 19, 1830. Horace Ferre, the father of Mrs. Eamnes. was born at Springfield. May 11, 1790. and died November 26, 1865. He married Harriet Avery, who was born in Stafford. Conn .. October 27. 1793. and died October 25, 1876. Their chil- dren were: Giddings H., born August 23, 1817. died September 25, 1830; Harriet A. married Albert Eames: Horace, born October 24. 1820, settled in California; Henry P., born September 14. 1822, died June 2, 1891 ; Henrietta G., born October 4, 1824; Giddings H. (2). born Febru- ary 24. 1834. who settled in California, and Helen, born April 9, 1840, died in childhood.

HE CABOT FAMILY. Modern research has traced the numerous branches of the Cabot family back to one stem. which has flour- ished in the Island of Jersey since the time when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary; and to-day there are two parishes still inhabited almost exclusively by Cabots. The coat of arms of the Jersey family is perfectly defined and well known, and consists of a shield of gold surmount- ed by an armored helmet. The crest is an " es- callop or " and the motto-" Semper cor Caput

Cabot." The device is three fishes, or, in the Jersey phrase, three "Chabots;" and by this charge upon the coat of arms, the origin of those who bore the name in other countries can be determined. The fishes are found crossed with the Rohan arms, when one of that great family married a Chabot of Poitou, and one of the most distinguished branches of the same family is that of Rohan-Chabot. The coat of arms and motto of John Cabot, as borne by the French descendants of the discoverer, are iden- tical with those of the Jersey family.

With this explanation as to the name, the history of the New England family can be sketched from the certain testimony of legal records and family papers. Sometime in the latter half of the seventeenth century François Cabot, of St. Trinity. Island of Jersey, a wealthy land owner, married Suzanne Gruchy, of the same family as the Marshal Grouchy, one of Na- poleon Bonaparte's trusted officers. In 1677 a son was baptized George in the St. Helier church, and the records show that three years later an- other son received the name of Jean. There was also an older son named François, and about 1699 the Registry of the deeds at St. Helier bears witness that the three sons just named sold a large amount of real estate, and soon afterward emigrated to Massachusetts.

John Cabot, the youngest of the three emi- grant brothers, came to Salem in 1700, and made a fortunate marriage, his wife, Anna Orne, being a member of one of the prominent Essex county families of the earliest English emigration. He prospered greatly, became an eminent merchant, and built himself what was considered for many years afterward one of the handsomest houses in Salem. He had nine children, among whom was a daughter, Margaret, who married Benja- min Gerrish. afterward Royal Governor of the Bermudas. Through the youngest son, Joseph, was continued the line of descent in which we are now interested.

Joseph Cabot entered into business with his father and was equally prosperous. He remained in Salem and married Elizabeth Higginson, a direct decendant in the fifth generation from Francis Higginson, the first minister of the Mass- achusetts Bay Colony. Nine sons and two daughters were born to this marriage, and of these sons, four, namely George and Samuel, Andrew and Francis, were especially prominent in their day. Hon. George Cabot served as United States Senator from Massachusetts from 1791-'96 and in 1798 declined the Secretaryship of the Navy. He was chosen president of the Hartford Convention, and held numerous other

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positions of honor and trust [See "Life and Let- ters of George Cabot", by Henry Cabot Lodge, pub- lished by Little, Brown & Co., of Boston. Mass. ]. During the Revolution the brothers were associa- ted in business, and they fitted out many priva- teers that preyed upon English commerce with great prejudice to the enemy and their country. One of George Cabot's ships, the "Cicero", was commanded by Capt. Hugh Hill, a man of great daring, and well known at that time. Andrew Cabot's ship, "Defiance", also a privateer, was destroyed in the ill-starred Penobscot expedition of 1799. The younger members of the family served their country in other ways. Francis was in Colonel Pickering's regiment on his Rhode Island expedition, and subsequently in Washington's army. Chastellux' "Travels in North America, " translated from the French, has a note upon the family as follows: "The town of Beverly, Mass., began to flourish greatly toward the conclusion of the war, by the extra- ordinary spirit of enterprise and great success of the Messrs. Cabot, gentlemen of strong under- standings, and the most liberal minds, well adapted to the most enlarged commercial under- takings, and the business of government. Two of their privateers had the good fortune to cap- ture in the European seas, a few weeks previous to the peace, several West Indiamen, to the val- ue of at least a hundred thousand pounds ster- ling." Yet even the profitable patriotism of the privateer was not always unattended with sacri- fices and misfortunes. Col. John Trumbull in his "reminiscences " [page 84] says that he took passage at Bilbao for Beverly in 1781 in the "Cicero", a fine letter-of-marque ship of twenty guns, and one hundred and twenty men-Cap- tain Hill. belonging to the house of Cabot. When Colonel Trumbull joined the ship she had with her a British Lisbon packet, sixteen guns, which she had just taken as a prize. On his ar- rival at Beverly. Colonel Trumbull saw lying in the harbor eleven privateers, all finer than the "Cicero," and all belonging to the Cabots. The following year, the same writer speaks of being in Beverly again, and adds that not one of the privateers was to be seen in the harbor. All had been lost, and the Cabots did not have a single letter-of-marque ship afloat.

Hon. Samuel Cabot, who was for many years a leading citizen of Boston, was active in polit- ical affairs, and in June of 1798 was in London as agent of the American Commission under the Jay Treaty. He married Miss Sarah Barrett, a direct descendant of Lieut. William Barrett, an officer in the Colonial army in King Philip's war, under Capt. Joseph Sill. Lieutenant Barrett

located at Cambridge, Mass., June 10, 1656, purchasing a house and land from William French, and became influential in local politics, serving as selectman in 1671 and 1681.

V. Stephen Cabot, son of Samuel and Sarah (Barrett) Cabot, was a successful merchant, and for many years represented the firm of Lee, Cabot & Co., in Port au Prince, Island of St. Thomas. He was married there in 1820 to Zamie Paul.

VI. Joseph Clark Cabot, son of Stephen and Zamie (Paul) Cabot, was born March 9, 1822, at Port au Prince, and died June 7, 1895, at Bristol, R. I. He followed mercantile pur- suits throughout his active life, chiefly in St. Louis, Mo., where he was identified for some time with the firm of Wales, Cabot & Co., whole- sale grocers, and later with Chase & Cabot, wholesale dry goods merchants. The public spirit, so characteristic of the family, was not lacking in him, and during the Civil war he served on the staff of Gov. Hamilton Gamble, of Missouri, with the rank of major. On February 20, 1851, he was married at St. Louis, Mo., to Miss Catharine Hyde Wales, daughter of Orin Wales and Mary Tiffany. She was born Sep- tember 25, 1831, at Wales, Mass., and for the past fifteen years has resided at Stamford, this county. She is a direct descendant of William Hyde, who located at Hartford, Conn., in 1636, and was one of the leading men of the colony, being frequently elected to the office of select- man. His name appears on the old monument at Hartford as one of the original settlers, and he and his son Samuel are prominently men- tioned in the various histories of the early days in that locality. Mrs. Cabot is of the seventh gen- eration in descent from Lieut. Lion Gardiner, an officer in the Pequot war, who settled in Say- brook, Conn., in 1635, having come from Eng- land in the "Bachelor." a ship of only twenty- five tons. His wife, Mary, was a daughter of Derrick Willemson, of Woerden, Holland. In the direct paternal line Mrs. Cabot traces her descent from Deacon Nathaniel Wales, son of one of the first English settlers in America, who with his brother John sought freedom from the religious persecutions of their native land, and became members of the Plymouth Colony.

Mrs. Cabot's great-great-uncle, Nathaniel Wales, Jr., was a local judge, a member of the Governor's Council of Safety, and a talented and influential citizen of Windham, Conn. He was an ardent patriot, very active in town affairs, and generally presided at important town meet- ings held during the Revolution. At the com- mencement of the war there was no peter

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manufactory in Connecticut. Nathaniel Wales, Jr., in company with Col. Jedediah Elderkin, made a successful effort to supply this great want. At a special meeting of the Legislature in December, 1775, it was enacted .That a bounty or premium of thirty pounds should be paid out of the Treasury to the person who should erect the first powder-mill in the colony, and manufacture 500 pounds of good merchant- able gunpowder."

At the same session, December 17, 1775. liberty was given to Jedediah Elderkin and Na- thaniel Wales, Jr., to erect a powder-mill in Windham, pursuant to the Act of the Assembly. The place chosen for the site of their mill was at Willimantic, then a cluster of some half a dozen houses-with a grist and sawmill. The eastern portion of the linen company's thread mill now occupies its site. The work of erect- ing the mill was pushed with vigor, and com- pleted early in the spring of 1776. At the May session of the Legislature, 1776, Elderkin and Wales were allowed thirty pounds "for 1,000 pounds of powder previously manufactured by them." The powder made here greatly aided the Colonists in their struggle for inde- pendence.

Mrs. Cabot's maternal uncle, Bela Tiffany, was a noted raconteur and wit, and several of his stories have become American classics, thanks to the genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The great novelist in " Twice Told Tales " gives due credit to Mr. Tiffany as narrator of the following le- gends of the Province House: " Howe's Mas- querade," ". Edward Randolph's Portrait," and "Lady Eleanor's Mantle." In 1894 Mrs. Cabot purchased the Social Club house, No. 41 Grey- rock Place, and converted it into her private residence.

Of the four children of Joseph Clark and Catherine Wales Cabot all are now living, three of them being residents of Stamford, Connecti- cut.

I. Harry Hyde, born May 11, 1852, in St. Louis, Mo., pursued a course of study at Wash- ington University in his native city. In 1867 he spent seven months in Europe, and visited the Great Exposition held in Paris at that time. In 1871 he entered the sophomore class of Yale University. Upon his return to St. Louis he entered the wholesale dry-goods house of Chase & Cabot, where he remained nine years. Dur- ing that time he became interested in gas and water companies, and was one of the builders and owners of the Hannibal Water Company.

In 1882 he married Alice Purnell Holmes, of St. Louis, and in the fall of that year went to |

the Pacific coast, spending six months in travel, and visiting the ranches of friends. He returned to St. Louis in 1883. and was occupied with cor- porations and real-estate business. In 1886 his wife died, leaving two children: Isabel, born July 2, 1884, and Samuel Hyde, born July 29, 1886.

In 1887 he removed to the East, and resided two years in Stamford, Conn. In 1890 he mar- ried Elizabeth Byron Diman, daughter of the late Governor Byron Diman, of Rhode Island. He spent, with his wife, three months in Ber- muda, and then became a resident of Bristol, R. I .. occupying the home of Governor Byron Diman, which was built in 1807. By his second marriage there are no children.

In 1893 he was one of the organizers of the Naval Reserve, and became quartermaster of the first boat's crew of the Naval Reserve Tor- pedo Company of Bristol, which was the first company formed in the State of Rhode Island, and one of the first in the United States.

At the breaking out of the Spanish war, in April, 1898, he was appointed, by Governor Elisha Dyer. recruiting officer, with the rank of first lieutenant, and served two terms of duty in the city of Providence, recruiting the first Rhode Island Regiment United States Volunteers, two Batteries of Artillery and a Hospital Corps. For services as recruiting officer he was given a com- mission as first lieutenant in the Rhode Island militia. His children, Isabel and Samuel Hyde, are "children of the American Revolution."

II. Dexter Wales, born September 1, 1853. in St. Louis, Mo., began his education at the Washington University in his native city, and afterward graduated at the Moravian Military Academy at Nazareth, Penn. Returning to St. Louis in 1873, he entered the wholesale dry- goods house of Chase & Cabot, and from there went, in 1881, to the wholesale dry-goods house of Crow, Hargadine & Co., where he remained four years. During the great strike of the en- gineers on the Iron Mountain railroad he enlisted as a volunteer in the State service, and was under arms during the entire period under Cap- tain Ellerbe of the regular army. Owing to his previous military training his captain pronounced him the best drilled man of his company. He assisted in guarding the county jail and police courts, and was afterward ordered, with his company, to Carondelet to protect the property of the Iron Mountain railroad against a threat- ened attack of the coal miners of Illinois. In 1885 he came to Stamford, where he entered the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company. He is still a resident of that city, and is unmarried.

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III. Arthur Winslow, born August 22, 1859, in New York City, resided with his parents in St. Louis until his tenth year, commencing his education at the Washington University. He then came to New York with his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel T. Hyde, and entered the Murray Hill School. In 1875 and 1876 he spent nine months abroad. He fitted for college in Stamford under an Oxford graduate, and entered Columbia College in 1877, where he became a member of the "Peithologian Society." He graduated in June, 1881, ranking, after the honor men, first in his class. During this period he did considerable literary work, collaborating the novel " Two Gentlemen of Gotham." In 1882 he entered the dry-goods commission firm of Ammidown Lane & Co., of New York, and aft- erward became secretary and treasurer of a large publishing house, with which he remained con- nected for three years. He has since had charge of several estates, which he has managed with ability and success. Mr. Cabot is an active yachtsman, having cruised from Maine to the Chesapeake, and having owned the following yachts: "Madcap," " Kathleen." "Kelpie and " Consuelo." He is a member of the New York Club and the Riverside Yacht Club, and was the founder and organizer, also first captain, of the Hillandale Golf Club of Stamford, Conn. Upon the death of his uncle and aunt, in 1891, he removed to Stamford, and resided with his parents at No. 18 Clinton avenue until the re- moval of their residence to Greyrock Place. He is unmarried.

IV. Katherine Queen Cabot was born in Saint Louis, Mo., December 26, 1869. In 1875 she went to Europe, and traveled one year in England, France, Switzerland and Italy. She came east in 1881 with her parents, and attended Mesdemoiselles Charbonnier's school in New York, in which city she resided with her aunt, Mrs. Samuel T. Hyde. In 1882 she moved to Stamford, Conn., and for six years was a pupil at Miss Catherine Aiken's school. In 1896 she visited the historic homes of James river, and was received on terms of charming intimacy by the Harrisons of Brandon, the Drewrys of West- over, and the Carters of Shirley. A clever arti- cle entitled " The Month of Roses on James River," was published shortly after her return. She belongs to the local society of King's Daugh- ters, in which she does active and effective serv- ice as secretary. By virtue of her distinguished ancestry she is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and in 1898 was elected registrar of the Stamford Chapter. She is also eligible in three lines for Colonial Dames.

T "HE STRATFORD JOHNSONS. The founder of the State of Connecticut, as to its boundaries, was Sir Richard Nichols, the first English Governor of New York; of its constitu- tion. Thomas Hooker, who was the first to an- nounce the principles of Democracy in the United States. The Burrs, Goulds and Andrew Ward also stand forth with Governor Eaton as great names in the initial era of this conserva- tive old Commonwealth. At a somewhat subse- quent period, four eminent Colonial families- the Wolcotts, Griswolds, Trumbulls and the Stratford Johnsons-were powerful factors in shaping the destinies of the formative epochs of Connecticut history. The Wolcotts furnished to the Commonwealth a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and several governors; the Trumbulls, more governors; the Stratford John- son family connection, nine distinguished college presidents, besides a statesman and ecclesiastic of international repute. The fame of the Gris- wolds is heightened by the fact that the family connection included sixteen governors and forty- three chief justices.

The Stratford Johnsons-a family which per- formed as important services in statesmanship and the cause of education for New York as Connecticut-are descended from the Johnsons, who founded Uppingham College, England, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The College, its façade quartered with the Johnson coat of arms, is still flourishing, and when the late Dr. Wool- sey Johnson, of New York and Stratford, Conn., visited it a few years ago, the students were granted a half-holiday in his honor. Of the half- a-dozen or more old court families of Connecti- cut, none has shared its honors and prestige more equally with New York than the Stratford Johnsons. Some of its members were born in New York, the family having frequently in its history interchanged residence between New York City and Stratford, although an ancestral country house has always been maintained by them on the homestead property in Connecticut.

The Stratford Johnsons, as such, date from the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, the first president of Columbia College, New York, who was born at Guilford, Conn., in 1696, removing early in life to Stratford. The Ven. Archdeacon John- son, of the borough of Richmond, New York City; the Rev. Prof. Johnson, of Berkeley Di- vinity School, Connecticut; William Samuel Johnson, Esq., of Mamaroneck,. N. Y .; the Rev. James LeBaron Johnson, of Grace Church, New York City; and Mrs. S. E. Johnson Hudson, of New York and Stratford, are lineal descendants of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, of Stratford,

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the first president of King's (now Columbia) College, and also in a double line from Jonathan Edwards.

Stratford-on-the-Sound, one of the loveliest villages of Connecticut, retains many of those attractive characteristics which it possessed when the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson first went there to add to it the lustre of his greatness. It was col- onized in the reign of Charles I by a company of English planters, led by a Church of England clergyman. Among the Colonial proprietors Welles; Sergeant Francis Nichols, of London, who had been one of the famous horse guards of Charles I; and William Beardsley, from Strat- ford-on-Avon, who named the town after his 1

birthplace. The Stratford and Fairfield plant- ers, who held extensive landed possessions, were singled out from the various colonies of the State for their gentle blood and superior refinement. Stratford village was laid out in wide avenues, the main one at a width of more than one hun- dred feet, and at a central and commanding point the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson many years 1 later fixed his abode. In 1725 he married a lady of wealth and high position-Mrs. Charity Nicoll, widow of Benjamin Nicoll, Esq., of the | William Johnson, married Susan Edwards, the Nicoll Patent, Long Island, and daughter of Col. I daughter of Hon. Pierrepont Edwards. By this Richard Floyd, of Brookhaven, Long Island. I union the Stratford Johnsons of the present day are descended in a double line from Jonathan

The Long Island Floyds originally came from

New Castle on the Delaware, in Wales. Mrs. | Edwards. Among the other distinguished col- Samuel Johnson was, on her mother's side of the house, a Woodhull, her mother being the daughter of an English gentleman who was first cousin to Lord Carew, father of the Bishop of | Durham, whose niece was mother of the Earl of Waldegrave. At the recent Columbia College celebration on Morningside Heights, the new site of that institution in New York City, no other historic character played such a prominent part in the reminiscences of that notable day as that of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, its first presi- 1 dent. Doctor Johnson, who had acted as the The old Johnson homestead at Stratford fell 1 by right of inheritance to the late William Samuel Johnson, who, after his retirement from i an honorable legal career in New York City, 1 maintained the establishment with all the quiet dignity of an English country gentleman. He married Miss Woolsey, a sister of President Woolsey, of Yale College. William Samuel Johnson's mother. the daughter of the Hon. Pierrepont Edwards, was always termed, by the townspeople of Stratford. "Lady Johnson." Archdeacon Johnson, of Staten Island, who son of Edwards Johnson, of West Stratford, the first tutor of Yale College, was called to be the first president of Columbia College, entering ! upon his duties in July, 1754. Doctor Johnson, by his character and talents, also made for him- self a permanent place in American ecclesiastical history, besides enjoying high repute in the mother country. For awhile he stood alone as the only Episcopal clergyman in the State of Connecticut, and his influence was virtually equal to that of a Lord Bishop. The intimate friend of Bishop Berkeley, he was himself the author of a number of philosophical works, one | married a Miss Lanier of excellent family, was a of which was dedicated to Bishop Berkeley, and ! printed by Benjamin Franklin. Doctor John- | brother of William Samuel Johnson. The chil-

son's correspondence with Bishop Berkeley is still preserved among the collections of keepsakes at Johnson homestead, Stratford, Connecticut.

The Rev. Dr. Johnson's son, William Samuel Johnson, LL. D., second president of Columbia College, a statesman of great ability and renown, was chosen to represent Connecticut at the first Colonial Congress held in New York City, and drew up the remonstrance to the King. Later on he was deputy to England as the agent of the | Connecticut Colony. An interesting paper made were John Welles, the son of Governor Thomas / up of extracts from his diary was read not long

ago, before the Colonial Dames of the State of | New York, by the great-granddaughter of the | famous statesman, Mrs. S. E. Johnson Hudson, of New York and Stratford, the present occupant of the Johnson homestead, Stratford, as a sum- mer residence. William Samuel Johnson during his residence in England was on intimate terms with Dr. Samuel Johnson, the lexicographer, who presented him with an autograph copy of the dictionary, which is still preserved along with several letters from George Washington to William Samuel Johnson at the Stratford home- stead.

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut, Part 102

Author: H. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1795

Author: H. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1899
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1795