Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut, Part 8

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

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The subject of our sketch was born August 25. 1867, at the old home in the Plum Trees Dis- trict, and was educated at the common schools of that locality and of Danbury. In 1882 he was apprenticed to G. A. Hickok & Son, hatters, of Bethel, with whom he remained until Decem- ber 9, 1887. He then purchased his present grocery business from M. W. Sherwood, and by his careful and energetic management he has won a decided success, as is shown by his greatly in- creased custom, which has necessitated the en- largement of his store. While the demands of his business are now absorbing, Mr. Barnum keeps well informed upon all the movements of the day, and is in full sympathy with any enter- prise that promises to benefit the community. He is an Episcopalian in religious faith, and be- longs to St. Thomas Church at Bethel. On May 14. 1891. he married Miss Emma Louise Lyon, a prominent member of the Society of the Daugh- ters of the American Revolution-Mary Wooster Chapter of Danbury.

Mrs. Barnum, who was born in Danbury, July 18, 1869, traces her ancestry through a long line of descent to the Underhills, a very ancient and honorable family of Huningham, Warwick- shire, England. "During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the prosperity of the family was at its height, they acquired property in almost every parish within six miles of Eatington, and attained the honors of Knighthood." The arms of the Underhills were "agent a chevron gules between three trefoils slipped vert." and the crest was a " buck trippant." An old genealogi- cal record of Warwickshire states that " Will- iam Underhill lyved in the yere of our Lord, 1423," and by his wife, daughter of Stanley, of Bromwick, left Nathaniel Underhill, who mar- ried a daughter of Butt, County of War- wick; their son John had a lease for eighty years of the manor of Eatington, &c., County of War- wick, from Sir Ralph Shirley in 1509; he died in 1518. John Underhill, chaplain to Queen Eliza- beth, and Bishop of Oxford, was also of the War- wickshire family. The Church of Lower Eaten- don. or Eatington, still contains some remains of the brass effigies and inscriptions of the ancient family of the Underhills. Thomas Underhill, eldest son of John of Huningham, married Anne, daughter of Robert Winter; their eldest son was Edward, distinguished by the title of " Hot Gos- peller, " because of his active part in the religious

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persecutions of the time. He exchanged the life of a country gentleman for that of a soldier and courtier. In 1544, King Henry appointed him one of the men-at-arms, who attended upon his Majesty's person. In 1545 he married Joan, daughter of Thomas Perryns, of London. Ed- ward, their second son and heir. was born Feb- Tuary 10, 1555, and, like his father, embraced the life of a soldier and courtier. He was asso- ciated with the Earl of Leicester at the time of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Kenilworth, and was afterward bearer of dispatches between the Queen and Leicester when he co nmanded the forces in the Low Countries. After Leicester's death he at- tached himself to the Earl of Essex, Leicester's successor in the Queen's favor. He accompan- ied him on his successful attack upon Cadiz. and also his expedition against Tyrme, rebel chief of Ireland. When Essex returned he was killed, and Underhill sought safety in Holland until the accession of King James in 1603, when he applied for pardon and leave to return to England, but without success. When Rev. Mr. Robinson and the separatists fled to Holland he dwelt and com- muned with them. His son, Capt. John Under- hill, whose exploits Whittier has sung, was born about 1600. He served as soldier under the Prince of Orange in the Low Countries. He was strongly urged to go with Governor Carver to the Plymouth settlement in 1620, but declined and Miles Standish came instead. He joined Governor Winthrop, and came as " captain of any militia force that might be employed or instituted, as he had served under the great Dutch Prince in the war of the Netherlands," in 1630; and soon we find him disciplining the Boston militia, where he was held in such high distinction that he was appointed one of the first deputies from Boston to the General Court, and one of the earliest officers of Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- pany. He was sworn freeman, May 18, 1630. His friend, Sir Henry Vane, sent him in 1637 as commander of Colony troops to Saybrook, Conn. The same year he was disfranchised and eventu- ally banished from the Massachusett jurisdiction- his ideas of religious toleration being more liberal than of those around him. In 1638 he returned to England, but was banished again on account of religious opinions. While there he published a book entitled "Newes from America, or a New and Experimental Discoverie of New England," which abounds in quaint passages, and contains an excellent account of the Pequot war, in which he took a conspicuous part. In 1638 he was chosen governor of Dover, New Hampshire. La- ter he assumed command of the Dutch forces in the wars against the Indians. He was represent-

ative from Stamford to the General Court in 1633. In 1644 he became a resident of Flushing, Long Island, but removed to Oyster Bay in 1655. In 1665 he was delegate from there to the meeting in Hampstead by order of Governor Nicoll, and by him was made high sheriff of the North Rid- ing of Long Island. In 1667 the Natinecock Indians conveyed to him a large tract of land which he called Kenilworth or Killingworth. He died July 21, 1672, and was buried on his estate at Killingworth, Queens Co., L. I. His first wife, Helena, came with him from Holland. His second wife, Elizabeth Feke, was the daughter of Robert Feke (whose wife was the widow of Gover- nor Winthrop's son Henry). By his second wife he had two sons, the eldest being Nathaniel, who married Mary Ferris, daughter of John Ferris, one of the first Patentees of the town of West- chester, N. Y. Nathaniel, their eldest son, mar- ried Mary Honeywell. He filled various public offices-was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Westchester county in 1759; was elected mayor of Borough of Westchester in 1775. He died November 27. 1775. His son, John Under- hill, married Mary Bowne. Of their twelve chil- dren, Benjamin was the second son. He was a prominent member of the Society of Friends. In 1768 he married Elizabeth Bonnett, a native of France. They resided in Scarsdale, where he died in 1818. They had eight children. Their eldest daughter, Sarah, married Abram Lyon, a native of Mamaroneck. N. Y. For many years they lived in Somerstown, N. Y., where Mr. Lyon carried on an extensive cooperage business. Several children were born to them. Finally they removed to Southeast, where Mr. Lyon died. He was buried in the old Presbyterian burying-ground at New Rochelle. His wife mar- ried, for her second husband, Robert Niffen, of Somerstown.

Monmouth Lyon. son of Abram and Sarah Lyon, was born at Somerstown, December 18, 1795, was married December 29, 1816, to Miss Rebecca Green, who was born in Danbury. Feb- ruary 15, 1798. Her father, Dorastus Green. and her two grandfathers were soldiers in the Revolutionary war. Her maternal grandfather. John Porter, was taken prisoner at the time of the burning of Danbury, and confined in the New York sugar house. Monmouth Lyon, who was prominent in the business life of Danbury, in vented the first power-loom machine for weaving ingrain carpets, and it is said that it completely revolutionized the business of carpet weaving. He and his wife were members of the First Con- gregational Church. Of their eleven children.

William Augustus, Mrs. Barnum's father, was

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the youngest. He was born October 12, 1837, was reared in Danbury, and since early manhood has followed the machinist's trade, in which he is regarded as an expert. He is also the inventor of many improvements in fur-hatting machinery. For many years he had charge of the machinery in the fur-cutting factory of W: A. & A. M. White. Socially. he is identified with Union Lodge No. - , F. & A. M., at Danbury. On May 15, 1860, he was married to Maria, daugh- ter of William and Elizabeth Eaton, who were both natives of England. William Eaton's fa- ther was a member of an old Leicestershire fam- ily. For a time he held a commission in the British Army. After his retirement from the army he married Katherine Stevens, whose fa- ther and brothers were clock-makers and gold- smiths, and the owners of much property in Wilt- shire. William Eaton was born in 1800. In 1850 he came with his family to this country and settled at Danbury. Conn., where he resided un- til his death in 1877. Ezekiel, the eldest son, still a resident of Danbury, served during the Civil war as a member of the Wooster Guards, the "first company of the State of Connecticut to pledge itself to the untarnished honor of the commonwealth and nation." Socially, he is con- nected with the Masonic order of Knights Tem- plar of Danbury, of which he has held the office of most eminent grand commander, and also with the Order of the Mystic Shrine of Bridge- port.

During the Civil war, Joseph Eaton, the second son, enlisted for three years in Company D, 7th Connecticut Volunteers. He was pro- moted to sergeant. He was at one time a resi- dent of Bethel, but removed from there to Sing Sing, N. Y., where he took an active part in the political and social life of the place. He has held many prominent offices in the G. A. R. His present home is at Newburyport, Mass. The youngest son, George, is now living at Hav- erhill, Mass., where he is superintendent of W. B. Thom & Co.'s hat factory.

M ON. HENRY PENFIELD BURR, a man of prominence and distinction, now retired and living at Westport, Fairfield county, an octo- genarian, is the representative of one of the old and distinguished families of Fairfield county.

Born in the town of Fairfield, Fairfield coun- ty, April 3, 1819, Captain Burr is the son of James Burr, who, too, was a native of Fairfield town and county, and the grandson of Major Hezekiah Burr, also a native of the same town and county, and of English extraction.

Major Burr was a farmer throughout his life- time, and lived and died in the town of his na- tivity, honored and respected by all whose priv- ilege it was to have had his acquaintance and been associated with him. He was a patriot, and served his country in the Continental army during the war of the Revolution, acquiring his title for meritorious conduct. He married Miss Mary Annabel, and the union was blessed with children as follows: Ephraim died in infancy; James is referred to farther on; Silliman was a farmer in Fairfield county; John was a farmer in Fairfield county; and Ephraim (2) was a sea-faring man, and died in Salem, Mass .; all are deceased. Major Burr died April 24, 1840, his wife on January 8, 1848. In their religious views both were Presbyterians, and in politics the Major was a Democrat.

James Burr (father of our subject) was reared in Fairfield, and became a sea-faring man, follow- ing that vocation through life. He was married to Sallie Penfield, a native of Fairfield, daugh- ter of James Penfield, who, too, was a patriot of he war of the Revolution, the family being an old and prominent one of Fairfield county, of English origin. After marriage the young couple lo- cated in Fairfield, and there reared a family of six children: Catherine died unmarried; Lewis was a carriage manufacturer in Westport, and is now deceased; Mary died unmarried; Henry P. is referred to farther on; Julia is the widow of Henry Smith, who died in California; and James lives retired in California. The father of this family died November 6, 1826, and the mother passed away on March 19, 1870.

Capt. Henry Penfield Burr until sixteen years of age passed his boyhood in the town of Fair- field. At that age he began learning the carriage manufacturing business, which he afterward fol- lowed for some years in Westport. In 1849, during the gold excitement on the Pacific coast, he went to California via Cape Horn. He spent nine years in that State, including the time in making three trips thereto from the East. He made the second and third trips via the Isth- mus of Panama. After his California experience he returned to Westport, and there remained until the breaking out of the Civil war. His love of country filling him with that patriotism his ancestors displayed in the war of the Revo- lution, he recruited a company made up of men principally from Westport, of which he was com- missioned captain, and the company, E, became part of the 17th C. V. I., which formed a part of the Army of the Potomac. At the battle of Chancellorsville, Va., he was taken prisoner by the enemy, and was confined in Libby prison at

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Richmond, Va. After an imprisonment of a short time he was released; then participated in the battle of Gettysburg, Penn., after which he went south and there remained until his resigna- tion, March 28, 1864, at St. Augustine, Florida. After an honorable military career, in which he made a good record as a soldier, he returned to Westport and became engaged in the grocery business. During the third of a century that has since elapsed Captain Burr has made a useful citi- zen, and not been without that recognition that his services and worth have merited. In politics he is a Republican. He has served as town clerk; was postmaster of Westport twelve years, and represented his county in the State Legislature two terms, serving with that fidelity to duty and ability that is characteristic of the man. His bus- iness life, too, has been an honorable one, and one marked with good judgment and manage- ment. Public-spirited and enterprising, he has been interested in such movements as have tended to build up and advance the town and county. He has been successful. Captain Burr is identi- fied with the G. A. R.

On November 15, 1843, Captain Burr was married to Miss Sarah E. Taylor, a native of Westport, Conn., and seven children were born to the union, namely: Algernon T. is now a resi- dent of Greenwich, Conn., but is engaged in busi- ness in New York; Henry E. and Louis D. both died in young manhood; Frank A. is now in the office of the Pennsylvania Steel Company in New York; and three other children, who died in infan- cy. In 1870 the mother of these children died, and in 1879 the Captain was married to Mrs Ma- ria L. (Hoyt) Olmstead. Mrs. Burr is the daughter of Uriah and Betsey (Akin) Hoyt, the latter of whom was the daughter of Thomas Aikin, a sol- dier of the war of the Revolution. In religious faith Captain Burr is a Congregationalist, while his wife is a Baptist.

N ICHOLS OF NICHOLS. The name Nich- ols (an abbreviation of Nicholas) is of purely patrician origin, having been invented by the Alexandro-Egyptian dynasty as a cognomen for princes, along with Berenice for princesses, and means " Mastery over the People." [Patronym- ica Britannica, Yale College Library.] By degrees, the brevet acquired the permanence of a surname, eventuating in the historic Nicholas family of Europe, which has given the world two Popes, besides long lines of nobility. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Count Nicolas de Albini and the other Counts Nicolas of Normandy removed to England, purchasing estates at

Lincoln. For a while, the Counts Nicolas called the venerable Lincoln, the city of their adoption, " Nicole," giving out that the latter way was the easier of pronunciation; but this Gallic vestige of papal supremacy did not suit, and Lincoln remained obstinately Lincoln.

Since the reign of Elizabeth, forty coats of arms have been granted the descendants of Count Nicolas de Albini, including those of various peers of the realm. Of these, Sir H. Nicholas wrote the " Historic Peerage of Eng- land". The family, time out of mind, has been marked by a penchant for genealogical research, the late John Gough Nichols, editor of the Herald and Genealogist, along with his father and grandfather, having devoted his life to antiquarian studies, the memorial of their united labors being a Nichols genealogy of Titanic size, deposited in the College of Arms in London. The genealogist of the Nichols family in the United States is William J. Nichols, son of the late Bradley Nichols, Esq., of Bridgeport.

Sergeant Francis Nicolls, of London, one of the Royal Horse Guards of Charles I, came to New England, becoming, in 1639, an original Colonial proprietor of the township of Stratford. Connecticut. His Colonial grant of landed estate in the township of Stratford, Connecticut, in 1639, inclusive of the site of the town of Nichols, comprised ten thousand acres. He sprang from a family of fighters-lawyers and military men-and was the first military man in the Colony. His uncle, Francis Nicolls, of London and Ampthill Great Court, married a daughter of Lord Bruce. Sir Richard Nicolls, the first English Governor of New York, was a colonel at the head of the British forces in the New Netherlands, and bequeathed a legacy to Sergeant Francis Nicolls, of Stratford, Conn. Among the descendants of Sergeant Francis Nicolls are the Right Rev. William Ford Nichols, the Bishop of California, who married Miss Ada Quintard, daughter of Edward Quintard, of New York, and niece of Bishop Quintard; George Foster Peabody, of Brook- lyn; Mrs. Walter Camp, of New Haven; George W. Nichols, of Brooklyn Heights; the Rev. C. W. de Lyon Nichols, of New York; Charles L. Thomas, of Chicago; ex-Governor Nichols, of Louisiana; and Mrs. Oscar F. Livingston (née Nichols), of New York. Mrs. Livingston's grandfather, the Hon. Charles Nichols, was Minister to Holland.

Sergeant Francis Nicolls' kinsman, Sir Rich- ard Nicolls, the first English Governor of New York, who named New York and Albany, was in a certain sense the founder of Connecticut, as

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Thomas Hooker, from whom a number of the last two generations of Nichols of Nichols come direct, was of the constitution of the State. In 1662 Charles II granted to Connecticut a tract of land reaching across the continent; however, in 1664, he revoked his gift and presented the largest part of Connecticut to the Duke of York. The final decision of Governor Nicolls, fixing the limits of the State of New York twenty miles east of the Hudson, saved Connecticut, so that he was really the founder of the State of Connecticut. The family name both in New York and Con- necticut was spelled Nicolls, during the early Colonial period.

Sergeant Francis Nicolls' son, Caleb Nicholls, from whom the Nichols of Nichols descend, was also exclusively a landed proprietor. He mar- ried Anne Ward, a granddaughter of Sir Richard Ward, a daughter of Andrew Ward, Esq., of Fairfield, Conn., who, prior to his settlement there, had been Lord of the Manor of Baccons in England. Andrew Ward was commissioned together with Winthrop, Roger Ludlow and two others, to govern the people of Connecticut, when the State stretched nearly down to New York City, besides embracing half of Long Island. As a magistrate he declared war against the Pequots, was also a deputy to the first court held in Connecticut, and took an active part in portioning off the townships of the State. His wife was a Miss Sherman, the granddaughter of Henry Sherman, of Sherman Hall fame, Ded- ham, England, from whom descended Roger Sherman, the signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence; General Sherman; Hon. John Sher- Inan; Mrs. Bradley-Martin; the Countess of Craven; the Countess Castellane; the late Jay Gould; ex-Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts; George Burroughs Torrey, of New York and Paris; and the Hon. William M. Evarts. Col. Aaron Burr. the third Vice-President of the United States, traced his lineage back to this Ward-Sherman marriage, from which the Peet- Nichols branch of the Nichols of Nichols come, in a double line of descent. Mary Nichols, of Stratford, a niece of Caleb Nicholls and Anne Ward, married Rev. Israel Chauncey, the chief founder of Yale College, and an ancestor of the Hon. Chauncey M. Depew.

Abraham Nicholls, born 1622, a son of Caleb Nicholls and Anne Ward, having inherited from his father and grandfather a proprietary right in the township of Stratford, was the first to erect a homestead on the ancestral estate at Nichols in North Stratford. The wife whom he brought to his lordly domain of three thousand acres was Rachel Kellogg, a daughter of Hon. Daniel Kel-

logg, one of the founders of Norwalk, who rep- resented Norwalk eight years in the General Assembly between 1670-1683, and his wife, Miss Bouton, a granddaughter of Jean Bouton, the Marquis of Chamilly and Marshal of France. Among the prominent and wealthy descendants of Abraham Nicholls and Rachel Kellogg are George Foster Peabody, of Brooklyn, a kins- man of George Peabody, the philanthropist; the late Bradley Nichols, of Bridgeport, and George W. Nichols, of Brooklyn Heights, who married a Miss Main, the sister of Mrs Robert Allyn, of Hartford. The family of George Foster Pea- body and George W. Nichols, of Brooklyn, who are cousins, was related to Sir Joshua Bates, of London, of the firm of Baring Bros. Sir Joshua Bates' daughter, the late Madame Vandeweyer, lived in Windsor Park, near Windsor Castle, and Her Majesty Queen Victoria was present in person at the christening of each of Madame Vandeweyer's children, for whom she stood as godparent. The present Mr. Vandeweyer, of Windsor Park, married a sister of the Earl of Craven. George Foster Peabody, who is well- known in London, is a member of the firm of Spencer, Trask & Co., New York City, presi- dent of several railroads, and vastly influential in political movements of the United States.

Capt. Joseph Nichols of Nichols, besides being a hereditary landholder of more than two thousand acres, was prominent in local ec- clesiastical and military affairs. He caused the highway to be laid between Stratford and Nichols, the road being known as " The Cap- tain's Highway," and Nichols as "The Cap- tain's Place." He was the uncle of Stephen Burroughs, the astronomer, and married Mary Curtiss, of Nichols, whose family possessed large means and were allied to Governor Welles. Lieut. Nathan Nichols, a son of Capt. Jo- seph Nichols of Nichols, served on the Com- mittee of Safety during the Revolution, and his grandson, Stiles Nichols, was born in 1761, was the founder of the Bridgeport Farmer, one of the most influential newspapers of western Con- necticut. Frederick C. Nichols, a prominent citizen of Bridgeport, who has a handsome resi- dence on Golden Hill, is a great-grandson of Stiles Nichols. Frederick C. Nichols' sister, Mary Louise Clark, married Benjamin C. Por- ter, one of the most celebrated of American por- trait painters.

Andrew Nichols, Esq .. of Nichols, son of Capt. Joseph Nichols, was one of the wealthiest men of that part of the country, and his great- grandson, Bradley Nichols, who lately died, was the richest person of the name of Nichols in

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Bridgeport. Andrew Nichols married Abiah Plumb, a daughter of Noal Plumb, in direct line from " Thomas Hooker, one of the makers of America." Andrew Nichols, Esq., kept a large number of slaves, and his daughter, Martha, married Col. Lewis Fairchild, of Trumbull, the founder of the present Fairchild fortune. Hor- ace L. Fairchild, a prominent resident of Nichols, is a grandson of Col. Lewis Fairchild and Martha Nichols.

Hezekiah Nichols of Nichols, a son of Andrew Nichols, Esq., succeeded to the homestead and a goodly portion of the estate of Nichols. He was related to the Rev. James Nichols, the last Episcopal clergyman who went to Scotland for ordination, and to the first ordained in America -Rev. Philo Shelton. Hezekiah Nichols mar- ried (first) his cousin, Prudence Shelton, a lineal descendant of Governor Welles, and (second) Avice Peet, of whose family name the old Peet mansion in Brooklyn is a significant memorial. Avice Peet's grandniece, Alice Sumner, the sister of Prof. William G. Sumner of Yale College, married Walter Camp.

The late George Kneeland Nichols, of Bridge- port, a son of Hezekiah Nichols of Nichols and Avice Peet, was the chief founder of Nichols as a manufacturing village. He was born in the large homestead house of his grandfather, Andrew Nichols, Esq., which stood at the head of the estate, and had to be taken down along with its extensive slave quarters early in the present century. George Kneeland Nichols married Ar- mina (Platt) Seeley, a daughter of the Rev. Monson Seeley, and a great-granddaughter of Lieut. Nathan Seelye of the Revolution, who is buried in the old Stratfield cemetery. Mrs. Nichols is descended in three lines from Richard Lyon, the first of Fairfield, whose landed prop- erty reached twelve miles in one direction. The Rev. Charles Wilbur de Lyon Nichols, of New York, born at Nichols, is the only surviving child of George Kneeland Nichols and Armina Seeley. Among the family heirlooms is an original copy of Guillim's Display of Heraldry, the cele- brated edition of 1724. George Kneeland Nichols was buried in the cemetery at Nichols, in ground which had been in the possession of the family more than two hundred and fifty years, and the grave is marked by a monument bearing the Governor Nichols coat of arms.

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut, Part 8

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