Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut, Part 30

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 30

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Characteristically, while yet teaching, he commenced the study of law, under the advice and instruction of Col. H. W. R. Hoyt, a prom- inent lawyer at Greenwich, Conn., reciting once or twice a week till the end of the term. Col- onel Hoyt, early recognizing his ability, advised him to cease teaching, and offered him terms that made it possible for him to enter his office and be self-supporting while he pursued his profes- sional studies.

In due time Mr. Walsh was admitted to practice at the Fairfield County Bar, and being at once received into partnership by his accom- plished and experienced preceptor, he was imme- diately thrown into the arena of practical effort, and won his spurs as a lawyer under the most benign auspices. In 1882 his self-reliant nature prompted him to seek absolute independence, and accordingly he opened a law office of his own at Greenwich. His professional work in- creased with great rapidity, and he attended to it with so much diligence and ability that he speed- ily won distinguished prominence at the Bar.

The knowledge and experience thus gained eminently qualified him for public positions of honor and trust, and the community in which he lived were not slow in recognizing his ability and worth. During the year of his admission to the Bar he was chosen corporation counsel of the town, also borough attorney of the borough of Greenwich, which incumbencies he still fills with characteristic acumen and probity. In political

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work, also, it is but natural that he should seek to attain prominence, gifted as he is with fluent eloquence and rare argumentative powers. An ardent Republican, he, during the Presidential campaign of 1880, took the "stump " in Con- necticut in behalf of Garfield and Arthur, and in the same year was placed on the Republican State Central Committee for the Twelfth Sena- torial District of Connecticut - a party honor which was accorded him by re-election down to the time he was elected judge, when he resigned. In the Presidential campaign of 1884 he was equally active in his support of Blain and Logan. Before the year ended he was placed in the field by the Republicans of the Twelfth district as their candidate for the State Senate, and was elected by a large majority, his popularity being so great that he ran far ahead of his ticket. In 1886 he was chosen secretary of the State Cen- tral Committee, and, being renominated for the Senate, was re-elected by twice the majority re- ceived in the previous campaign.

In the Senate he developed remarkable abil- ity as a debater, almost unconsciously impressing on his co-workers the fact that in Senator Walsh they had among them a man of judicial mind, in- stinctive sagacity, strong memory, iron will, in- domitable perseverance, great power of mental concentration, and withal, entire self-command; in fact, before the close of the first term he had become a recognized power in that body. Dur- ing the session of 1885 he served as chairman of the committee on Incorporations, and in 1886 and 1887 he was chairman of the Judiciary com- mittee. Both of these prominent chairmanships he filled with remarkable ability, and demon- strated so much strength in general legislation that he became the leader of his party in the Senate, and had the honor of being called to pre- side over that body as president pro tem. during the session of 1887. In 1888 he was nominated by the Republicans for the office of Secretary of State of Connecticut, and was elected with the rest of the ticket. He filled the position with dignity and honor. In the spring of 1889 he was appointed judge of the Criminal Court of Com- mon Pleas in Fairfield county, bringing to that position all the ripe fruit of his rare legal training and experience, and an eminently judicial mind. Upon the acceptance of this he hoped to with- draw from all active participation in politics. In 1890 he positively refused the use of his name for a renomination for the office of Secretary of State, and fully expected and was anxious to be relieved of the duties of the office at the expira- tion of his term. The failure of the Legislature to declare the election of his successor made it

impossible for him to leave the office vacant, the constitution of the State making him the secre- tary until his successor had been declared elected, and had been duly qualified.

Although Judge Walsh's political success has been brilliant in the extreme, and is full of promise, it in nowise overshadows his success as a lawyer. In 1885, having already achieved a wide reputation, he was appointed, by Governor Harrison, a member of the commission to revise the statutes of Connecticut. Although one of the youngest men in that body (which was com- posed of the flower of the legal profession), he was one of the most active in its deliberations, bringing to the work in hand a well-trained mind, a clear judgment and remarkable powers of an- alysis. His older colleagues on the commission were quick to recognize his ability, and it is an indisputable fact that the success of the revision was due in no small degree to his unremitting zeal and keen intelligence.

Mr. Walsh's practice is one of the most gen- eral kind. His services are sought to such an extent that his business extends to all the courts of the State. The greater part of his work con- sists of important cases, and his practice is lu- crative as well as large. Probably no lawyer of his years in the State occupies.a more distinguished position at the Bar, or is held in greater esteem by his colleagues. His enviable reputation has been won by the exhibition of some of the best qualities of manhood, including perseverance, diligence, inflexible integrity and a high sense of honor in both business and legislation. His mind, while full of information, patient in details, and accurate in the minutest point, is naturally com- prehensive, and tends to broad and rapid gen- eralization. His political strength, based alike on his distinguished ability as a lawyer and his unremitting zeal in the public service, grows stronger year by year, and is steadily augmented by his great personal popularity.

The Judge's great abilities have not been wholly confined to strictly professional or polit- ical pursuits. He has also given considerable at- tention to financial matters, in all of which his course has been marked throughout by the same integrity, fidelity and ability. He was largely instrumental in organizing and establishing the Greenwich Trust, Loan & Deposit Company, which has been successful far beyond the expec- tation of its promoters. In 1890, while absent on his vacation, he was, quite unexpected to himself, elected its president, a position he still holds. He is also director and counsel of the Greenwich Gas & Electric Light Company, of which he was an enthusiastic promoter. He is

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secretary of the Hawthorne Mills Company, a corporation having nearly one million dollars capital, and conducting a business in the manu- facture and sale of woolen goods, in both Green- wich and New York City. He is interested in some land improvement schemes, and a strong advocate and friend of progress and improvement in all directions. At all times and under all circumstances he is a representative American, patriotic to the backbone, ever eloquent upon the future of his country and the magnificent possi- bilities for all which that future involves. His career is a shining example of what may be accomplished by inherent natural abilities allied to a strong determination and perseverance, even under the most adverse circumstances. He has achieved a moderate competence, an influential position and an honorable name; yet no man owes less to fortuitous circumstances or extra- neous help. That there are no rules for building character, no rules for achieving success, no royal road to fame, is only proven by the career of Hon. Robert J. Walsh, who, as will be seen, has been distinctively and absolutely the archi- tect of his own fortune.

EV. RUSSELL T. HALL, D.D., pastor of the First Congregational Church at New Britain, Conn., is descended from an old New England family whose time of settlement dates back to 1631, and is now known to genealogists as "The Medford Hall Family " from their loca- tion at Medford, Mass.

Born October 6, 1844, at Richmond, Vt., Dr. Hall is a son of Joseph A. and Sarah {Bronson) Hall, the former of whom was the son of a farmer, and a native of Vermont, born at Richmond, as was also his wife, who was the daughter of Thomas Bronson. This couple in 1856 moved with their family to near Oberlin, Ohio, locating in Russia township, Lorain county, where they were occupied as agriculturists, and there at Oberlin College they educated all five of their children who reached adult age, namely: Russell T., the eldest of the five, is mentioned farther on; Mary H. married Jacob F. Ellis, a prominent educator and president of a college; Thomas A. is a business man in Chicago; Lyman B. is a member of the Faculty at Oberlin Col- lege, Oberlin, Ohio; and Emily married Merton Thompson, and died at Albina, Ore. The father of these later in life moved to Michigan, where he died at the age of seventy-one years. He was a man of considerable force of character and ability. Having enjoyed but meager school advantages, he the more appreciated what an

education meant, and so gave his own children the best privileges in that direction. He had acquired by reading and contact with the world a large fund of general information, and was able to enjoy and appreciate the society of learned men. He was a leader in the different com- munities in which his lot was cast. Himself and wife were devout members of the Congregational Church. His widow now makes her home with our subject.

Dr. Russell T. Hall was a lad of twelve years when his father moved to Ohio. He entered Oberlin college, Oberlin, Ohio, and was grad- uated in the class of '65. During the Civil war he served one year, enlisting in December, 1861, as a private in Company H, 43rd O. V. I., and saw active service, participating in the various engagements in which his command took part. Owing to disability he was honorably discharged Nov. 30, 1862. In May, 1864, he again enlisted, this time in the one-hundred-days' service, and was assigned to duty in Washington, D. C. He was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant of his company. In September, 1869, he was mar- ried to Miss Mary A. Tyler, a native of Medina county, Ohio, a daughter of Gideon W. Tyler, one of the leading men of that county, where he served several years as county auditor. The daughter in question is a graduate of Oberlin College. To Dr. Hall and his wife have been born children as follows: Edith B. is at this time in the senior class at Oberlin College; Arthur B. is a freshman in Yale College; Tyler died in infancy; and Walter died when ten years of age. Politically Dr. Hall is a Republican. In 1895 the degree of D. D. was conferred on him by his Alma Mater, he being the second on the list to receive such honor from Oberlin College.

The following pen sketch of our subject, writ- ten by a noted divine, appeared in the "Treas- ury of Religious Thought" in January, 1895: " It has been noticed that Americans who passed their intellectual and spiritual adolescence, dur- ing the period of our great Civil war, developed in many cases a peculiar .toughness and strength of fibre, that quieter times fail to produce. They were 'marked' in their mental and moral na- tures by the martial sights and sounds amid which they came to maturity. This was notably the case with the subject of this sketch. His four college years were the four years of the war. Lincoln's call for 75,000 men fell upon his ears just as he was girding himself for the college cur- riculum, and the most notable event in the clos- ing month of his senior year was the jubilation on the college green over the surrender at Ap- pomattox. The call of the country in those days

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was, to many a hitherto thoughtless youth, the call of God, and in surrendering himself to the service of the nation he surrendered himself to Christ. Young Hall was just at an age to be deeply influenced by these stirring times, and the place of his birth, Richmond, Vt., with his par- entage of New England origin on both sides, in- sured his susceptibility to the more patriotic in- fluence that then swept over the land. Oberlin College, too, with which he had become identi- fied, was the place in all the country where the influence of those times would be felt with all its force. Oberlin was in the forefront of the fray. Two years before the town had been profoundly moved by the raid of John Brown upon Harpers Ferry. The father of Brown had been a trustee of the college, and his younger brothers and a sister had been students there, the hero himself had been closely identified with Oberlin men, and two of them lost lives with him in his mem- orable raid. Oberlin therefore had been keyed up to a high pitch of patriotic interest and ex- pectation by the time that Sumter had fallen, and within two days after the proclamation of the President 130 of her choicest young men had signed their names to the muster roll. Our youthful Vermonter, a worthy successor to the Green Mountain boys of Revolutionary fame, took his place with the rest and served for some time in the 43rd and 150th O. V. I. The training of Mr. Hall was therefore not wholly within college walls. The sterner discipline of the field was also his, and the interruptions that his studies suffered from these military absences were more than made up by such richer qualities of mind and heart as heroic self-sacrifice brings. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.

"His army experience served to sober his youthful thoughts and clarify his judgment, so that graduating just as he attained his majority, among the youngest in the class, he excelled in scholarship, and was distinguished for a grasp and maturity of mind far beyond his years. In the recitation room he was never known to fail or to be unprepared, and in his literary society he was a formidable antagonist in debate. That mental curiosity and capacity for acquiring infor- mation, and that living interest in the questions of the time that are so marked a feature in his later years, characterized him from the first. His fondness for reading made him a full man, and his delight in extemporaneous discussion a ready man. After two years spent in teaching and business in Tennessee, he entered Union Theo- logical Seminary in New York City, from which he graduated with the class of '70, having charge during the last two years of his course, however,

of the Wilson Mission in Tompkins Square. For his first regular pastorate he went to Ver- mont, his native State. The village of Pittsford was for nine years the scene of his devoted la- bors. During this time he became widely known as a man of power and promise, and in 1879 he was called to the First Congregational Church of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Six years later, becoming interested in the new material and religious de- velopment in Florida, he went to the . Flowery State,' and in Tavares and Jacksonville he spent six useful years. The South Florida Chautau- qua, of which he has been its president since or- ganization in 1887, is largely the fruit of his thought and care. He also served several years in the board of trustees of Oberlin and Rollins Colleges. His connection with the large and im- portant suburban Church, of which he is now pastor (Greenwich), dates from January, 1892. "The pulpit efforts of Mr. Hall are distin- guished for originality and depth of thought, full- ness of information, and fluence and grace of ex- pression. His style of speaking is uniformly extemporaneous, only the briefest notes of his interesting remarks ever appearing on the desk before him. The truths that he presents are clear and well defined in his own mind, and he succeeds in making them appear so to his hear- ers. No thoughtful person ever leaves his Church in doubt as to the meaning of the peacher. His theological is warmly evangelical. With a mind ever open to new light from whatever direction it may come, he rests his faith and his preaching upon the great historic facts and truth of God."

In December, 1897, Dr. Hall removed to New Britain, Conn., and became pastor of the First Church of Christ in that city, where he still remains.

D WIGHT WAUGH, one of Stamford's lead- ing citizens, has been prominently identified with the business interests of that locality for many years. As will be seen in the following brief biography, he is also prominent in Masonic circles, and has risen to the highest rank in the fraternity in this State, a fact which speaks vol- umes for his ability and personal worth.

Samuel Waugh, the grandfather of our sub- ject, was a native of Litchfield county, Conn., and served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. During the war of 1812 he organized a company to garrison Fort Trumbull, at New London, Conn. His wife, Elizabeth Goodwin, was no less partiotic, and as a school girl she helped to mold the lead, taken from the statue of King George III, into bullets for the use of the Coloni- al army.

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Samuel W. Waugh. the father of our subject, was born in the town of Morris, Litchfield county, where he followed farming for many years. His wife, whose maiden name was Caroline Marsh, was a desdendant of one of the first settlers of that county.

Our subject was born January 20, 1831, in the town of Morris, Litchfield county, and his boy- hood was spent upon the old farm. He was educated in the public schools of the locality, and in a private school taught by F. W. Gunn., in the town of Washington, now called " Gunn- ery School," and for a short time he was en- gaged in teaching in the district schools of his community. At the age of twenty he settled at Stamford through the influence of his uncle, Isaac B. Redfield, then manager of the Cove Mills, at that place. Beginning in November, 1851, as an engineer of Cove Mills (Stamford) Mfg. Co., Mr. Waugh was promoted from time to time until he became general superintendent of the company, which position he filled satis- factorily for five years previous to his retirement in April, 1893. He has been connected with various other business enterprises, and was first president of the Cove Transportation Company of Stamford. Notwithstanding the pressure of business cares he has found time to fulfill the duties of a good citizen, and he has been especi- ally active in educational affairs, having served as a member of the first school board in his town. For two years he was a burgess of the borough of Stamford. In politics he is a stanch Re- publican, but he is not an aspirant after official honors.

Mr. Waugh united with Union Lodge No. 5, F. & A. M., of Stamford, August 3, 1859, and was advanced January 18, 1860, and February 1, 1860. He became Mark Master August 4, 1864; Past Master and Most Excellent Master, August 11, 1864; Senior Warden in 1865, and in 1866 and in 1868, 1872 and 1875. he held the rank of Master. He was High Priest of Rittenhouse Chapter No. 11. R. A. M., in 1868, 1870, 1872, 1874. 1876, 1879, 1881, 1882, 1884, and 1887. On August 18, 1864, he took the Royal Arch degree at Norwalk, and in 1868, when the charter of Washington Council,, Stam- ford, was restored, he became a charter member. He was four times Illustrious Master of his Council-in 1868, 1883. 1889 and 1891. On March 3, 1865, he entered Clinton Commandery No. 3, K. T., at Norwalk, and in 1880 he held the post of Eminent Commander in that body. He also belongs to Lafayette Consistory of the Scottish Rite at Bridgeport, and to Pyramid Shrine at the same place. Since 1872 he has 10

been the representative of the Grand Lodge of Michigan in the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, and he has been through all the chairs in the Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, and Grand Coun- cil of this State. The following is a copy of a vote of thanks from the Grand Lodge which was presented, neatly framed, to Mr. Waugh in 1886.

Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Connecticut, An- nual Communication held in the city of Hartford, Jan- uary 20 and 21, 1886.

Resolved, That the thanks of the Grand Lodge E., be and are hereby tendered to the Most Worshipful Grand Master, Dwight Waugh, for the able and impartial and in every way satisfactory manner in which he has per- formed the duties of his office during the two years of his administration. Attest-J. K. Wheeler, Grand Sec- retary. Henry H. Green, Grand Master.

S MITH FAMILY. The father and sons of the Smiths of Newtown, of whom we particular- ly write, came of hardy Puritan ancestry, through whose generations have descended the fragrance of Godly lives, simple in faith but fervent in piety.

Rev. Henry Bagg Smith, the beloved pastor of the Congregational Church at Newtown from 1863 to 1873, was born at Westfield, Mass., November 8, 1819, the eldest child of Deacon Horace Smith, and his wife, Grata Bagg. Deacon Horace Smith, who afterward took his father-in- law's farm in West Springfield, Mass., was a man of decided convictions, sternly adherent to right, but generous to a fault. He was ever for- ward in every good work, and peculiarly devoted to the services of his Church, from which neither tempest nor the stress of summer heat could keep him. Deacon Smith tilled the soil for a living; he became the father of six sons-Henry B., Joseph A., Franklin F., William H., Sam- uel D. and Lyman; and three daughters-Mar- garet, Harriet and Caroline T. The mother of these children, quiet as she was, matched her husband's perseverance and Christian devotion, and, when she was taken away in her old age, Deacon Horace Smith, the husband of her life, almost fell in his tracks, as if the death shaft pierced his heart also .-

Henry Bagg Smith worked the West Spring- field farm when a boy, Deacon Henry Smith re- moving from Westfield when Henry was four years old, and received the discipline and educa- tion of farmer lads of seventy years ago. The father supplied milk to customers across the Con- necticut river in Cabotville (now Chicopee), and Henry and his brothers took it to them in a skiff. There was enough natural beauty in that fertile Connecticut valley region to stir the noblest am-

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bitions of the boy, and Nature was bountiful enough to satisfy the labors of his hands. But he was called to other fields and a different cul- ture by a strange Providence. While driving cattle before a harrow in the field, when about fourteen years old, he was thrown to the ground and drawn under the iron teeth. How he escaped alive no one can tell, but the cruel wounds laid him at death's portal for days. With recovery came the conviction, which never left him, that this was truly a call to his soul as ever the daz- zling glory that smote Saul blind in his furious progress toward Damascus. The fervor of the young convert's zeal stopped short of only the fullest consecration of himself to the blessed Master's service, and he soon obtained his fath- er's consent to prepare for the Gospel ministry. This preparation began at Wilbraham, and the subsequent preparatory studies were pursued at Westfield and at Munson. He furthered his studies in a collegiate course at Amherst, and then took up his theological studies at Andover Seminary, graduating from college in 1843 and from the seminary in 1846. His commencement oration at Amherst was a thrilling anti- slavery address. He was licensed to preach in April, 1846, before he left the seminary, and began the ministerial work in which he fainted not for thirty-six years. His first charge was at Charle- mont, Mass., where he was hired for a time. His first settlement was at West Granville, Mass., where he was ordained July 22, 1847, President Hitchcock of Amherst College preaching the ordination sermon, and Rev. R. S. Hazen of Berkhamsted, the young pastor's future father- in-law, giving the charge to the people.

The new minister was not long in finding a bride at Barkhamsted's Congregational parson- age, Miss Sarah Stedman Hazen. The Hazen stock is also an old Puritan institution, and has supplied many ministers of the Word. Rev. R. S. Hazen, a remarkably well-balanced man, and sincerely spiritual in his aspirations, finally died at Westminster, Conn., his last pastorate. His surviving children were: Rev. Timothy Hazen, of Goshen, Conn .; Mrs. George Fowler, of Aga- wam (now deceased); Mrs. Rev. H. B. Smith, and their half brother, Rev. Dr. James K. Hazen, of Richmond, Virginia.

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut, Part 30

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