Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 1, Part 111

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1336

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 1 > Part 111

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Mr. Webster remained on the old homestead until 1886, when he removed to Berlin street and purchased the old Deacon North property, where he has since resided. On questions of National importance he supports the Democratic party, but a: local elections votes for the men whom he be- lieves best qualified to fill the offices, regardless of party lines. He has never been prevailed upon to accept office, although public honors have been of- fered him at different times. He is a consistent and faithful member of the Congregational Church, to which his second wife also belonged, and of which his daughter is a member. His has been an honorable and useful life, in which he has won the confidence and high regard of all with whom he has come in contact.

JESSE JOHNSON HOADLEY, one of Marl- boro's highly respected citizens, belongs to a family that originated in the south of England and is sup- posed to have derived its name from one of two parishes in Sussex, East and West Hoadley (now spelled Hoathly), one in the rape of Lewes and the other in that of Pevensey.

(I) William Hoadley (or Hoadle, as he spelled the name), the ancestor of by far the greater part of those who bear the name in this country, was born in England about 1630. He first appears in Saybrook, Conn., in 1663, and in 1666 he bought the home lot of Rev. Abram Pierson, of Branford, when the latter removed to New Jersey. This lot was where the "Totoket House" now stands, and there he conducted his business as a merchant, his shop being next to his dwelling-house. He was pronounced a freeman May 13, 1669; was one of the representatives or deputies for Branford for nine sessions between 1678 and 1685; was select- man for several years, and was quite prominently identified with furthering the interests of the town. The name and time of death of his first wife are unknown. He had eight children according to the list taken Jan. 17, 1676, but the names of only seven ! are known, and six survived him. He died in No- . vember or December, 1709, aged about seventy-nine years. His estate inventoried £1.116. He was mar- ried a second time, about 1686, to Mrs. Mary (Bullard) Farrington, widow of John Farrington, of Dedham, Mass. She died May 12, 1709, and he

Luther & Webster

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later married Mrs. Ruth ( Bowers) Frisbie, who died April 26, 1736. The children by his first wife were William, mentioned below ; Samuel, who mar- ried Abigail Farrington ; John, who married Marcy Crane; Mary, who married Nathaniel Finch ; Eliza- beth, who died unmarried; Hannah, who married Nathaniel Johnson, of Branford ; and Abraham, who married Elizabeth Maltby.

(II) William Hoadley, son of the founder of the family in America, ran a sawmill on Stony river, the permit being granted if he would agree to sell boards at five shillings and not take more than half a log to pay for sawing it. He died in Branford, Conn., in May, 1738. He married (first) Abigail Frisbie, and they had three children: Mary, born May 22, 1691, was married Oct. 7, 1713, to Adam Raynor, of Branford; Hannah was born April 27, 1693; Jemima, born March 24, 1695, married (first) Joshua Fuller and (second) William Allen. For his second wife the father married Elizabeth Frost, by whom he also had three children: Elizabeth, who married (first) John Kincaid, ( second) Joshua Dudley, and (third) Titus Fairman ; William, who is mentioned below ; and Lydia, who married ( first) Alexander Montgomery and (second) John Bray.

(III) William Hoadley, the only son of Will- iam and Elizabeth ( Frost) Hoadley, was born Feb. 13, 1707, and was one of the first settlers of Judds Meadow, now in the town of Naugatuck. He was of very dark complexion, which he inherited from his mother, and was known as "Black Will Hoad- ley." He conducted a gristmill and sawmill for many years. His will was dated Aug. 14, 1779. He married Sarah Frisbie, and they had the follow- ing children : Sarah married Israel Caulkins ; Eunice married Josiah Terrell; William married Esther Porter ; Lemuel married Urania Mallory ; Ebenezer married Sarah Lewis; Ithiel married Sarah Bundy ; Jude married Naomi Linker; Elizabeth and David died young; and Elizabeth (2) married Moses Warner.

(IV) William Hoadley, son of William and Sarah (Frisbie) Hoadley, was baptized May 4, 1734, and died Dec. 21, 1820. He sold his father's gristmill and removed to Ohio, but one year's resi- dence there satisfied him, and he returned to Nau- gatuck. He married Esther Porter, a very hand- some woman, who came from a wealthy family, and was the village belle. They had six children, namely : Ammi, born June 15, 1762, married Amy Thompson ; Culpepper, born Sept. 10, 1764, married Molly Lewis ; Lucina, born , married (first) Willard Hine, and (second) Samuel Pardee, of Columbus, Ohio; Esther, born in 1769, was mar- ried in 1791 to Lyman Tyler, of Prospect, Conn .; William, born Dec. 28, 1774, married Nancy Hitch- cock ; and Ithiel was the grandfather of our subject.

(V) Ithiel Hoadley, born in Naugatuck in 1776, died in Waterbury, Conn., in 1859. About 1800 he married Olive Caroline Johnson, who died in Water- bury Feb. 24, 1857, aged seventy-one years. She

was a very beautiful woman, and an accomplished musician, and sang verses of her own composition. They located in Waterbury, though it is said their eldest son was born in Hoadleyville, Plymouth, Conn. They had four children : William Burton, born May 25, 1800, married Alvira (Alger) Hunt ; Selden Sylvester, the father of our subject, is next in the order of birth; Harriet, born in 1807, married Horace Chapman, of East Hampton, Conn .; and Lucinda, born about 1811, married Lewis Hodge.

(VI) Selden Sylvester Hoadley was born in Waterbury, Conn., Jan. 25, 1804, and died in He- bron Nov. 28, 1883. He worked in the stone quar- ries of Portland for thirty-five years, and then moved to "Cotton Hollow", South Glastonbury, where he conducted a boarding house for seven years, at the end of that time coming to Marlboro, and locating on a place near Marlboro pond, where he remained ten years. Subsequently he lived on various farms, and spent his last years at the home of our subject, where both he and his wife died. She bore the maiden name of Lydia Chapman, and was born in 1800 in Salem, Conn., a daughter of Samuel and Hannah ( Miller Chapman, who died in Ohio. After the death of her father, which oc- curred when she was young, she returned to this State, and being obliged to earn her own living, worked for Hollister & Glazier, in Cotton Hollow, as one of their first weavers. She died in 1895. Our subject is fourth in order of birth in a family of six children, the others being as follows: Mary, married David Chappel, and lived in South Man- chester ; Olive C., born June 26, 1828, married George B. Mallory, a machinist, of Bridgport, Conn .; Selden S., born Dec. 17, 1831, married Ellen Nichols, of Westerly, R. I .; Alonzo, born Sept .. 6, 1836, married Julia Coleman, and is employed in a tannery in Bridgport; and William Woodbridge, born Dec. 17, 1840, married Nancy M. Smith, and is a fisherman of Northport, L. I. Three of the four sons were soldiers in the Civil war, one being al- lowed to remain at home to care for the parents.

(VII) Jesse J. Hoadley, whose name introduces this sketch, was born in Portland, Conn., March 2, 1834, at the time his father was employed in the quarries at that place. He obtained only a very limited education in the district schools of East Hampton and Glastonbury, and after leaving school, at the age of fourteen years, he worked as a farm hand for James M. Dickinson at eight dollars per month, remaining with him three or four years. Later he worked for Jesse Dickinson, the father of his former employer, for about the same length of time, and subsequently was employed in the saw- mill of Aaron Phelps until the latter's death, when he conducted the mill for the estate for some time, working on a farm through the summer and in the mill during the winter months.

During the Civil war Mr. Hoadley manifested his patriotism by enlisting in August, 1863, in Com- pany K, of the "Fighting Fourteenth" Connecticut

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Volunteers, which regiment was so actively en- gaged that it lost all of its officers with the exception of the orderly sergeant, and as fast as a man was promoted he would be killed. Our subject served under Maj .- Gen. Hancock, Gibbons and Humphries, and participated in nearly all the engagements in which the regiment took part, with the exception of the battle of Gettysburg. On March 25, 1865, he was wounded at Farmville, Va., near the North Carolina line, on the Danville & Petersburg railroad, being shot in the left shoulder and for a time it was thought that he could not possibly recover. The surgeons performed a very difficult operation on him, known in surgery as "resection and exsec- tion," which consists in cutting off the end of the bone of the arm where it fits into the socket in the shoulder. The use of the left arm was almost wholly destroyed, and the scar of the surgeons' knife is a ghastly one. Mr. Hoadley remained in the hospital until August, 1865, when he was discharged from the service and returned to Marlboro. Near Marlboro he purchased a farm on Jones street, Hebron, where he remained nineteen years, and in 1887 removed to his present location, where he purchased a saw mill and the property known as the George Foote place. The mill is one of the old landmarks of the town. In 1887 Mr. Hoadley erected his present comfortable residence.

Our subject was married, in 1859, to Miss Susan A. Coleman, who was born in Marlboro, in 1838, a daughter of Oliver and Susan (Johnson) Cole- man, the former a farmer of that town. To our subject and his wife was born a daughter, Olive, who married Dan Jones, and died in 1893, leaving four children : Vera, Amelia, Jessie and Emerald Dan Jones.

In his political affiliations Mr. Hoadley is a Re- publican, and in his social relations is a member of Morton A. Taintor Post, No. 9, G. A. R., of Col- chester. He is widely known and highly respected, and is an excellent conversationalist, capable of entertaining a listener all day with interesting war reminiscences.

ALEXANDER PENROSE FORBES GAM- MACK, M. B., C. M., one of the leading physicians of Berlin, was born in Kincardineshire, Scotland, July 6, 1867, and is a son of Rev. James Gam- mack, M. A., LL. D., the present rector of St. James' Episcopal Church at West Hartford.

His father was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. April 23, 1837, and in early life studied for the ministry, being ordained at the age of twenty-two years. He was a clergyman in several parishes ill Scotland before coming to America, in 1889, and then was rector of Saviour's Church, East Toronto, Canada, for four years. At the end of that period he came to Plymouth, Conn., as pastor of St. Peter's Church, where he remained two years, and since then has held his present charge-St. James' Church, at West Hartford. He was married, April 29,

1862, to Miss Jane Ann Wilson, who was also born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Dec. 3, 1840, being the eldest daughter of the Rev. John Wilson, of Premnay, and to them were born six children: Mary Catherine, now the wife of Frederick W. Winter, a manufacturer's agent, of Utica, N. Y .; Alexander P. F., our subject; John Wilson, who married Mary Adele Coles, of Glen Cove, Long Island, and is now rector of St. Paul's Church, at that place; Arthur James, who married Mary Thompson Bridgman, of Stamford, Conn., and is rector of Christ's Church, West Haven; George Wilson, an electrician in the employ of the Pope Manufacturing Co., of Hartford; and Frederick Sharp, a chemist for Beach & Co., in Hartford. Our subject's paternal grandfather, Alexander Gam- mack, was engaged in mercantile business in early life, and later followed farming. He died in 1857; at the age of sixty-four years.

Dr. Gammack began his education at an early age, and after attending the schools of Kincardine- shire for some time entered the Grammar School in Aberdeen. He next studied under private tutelage, and at the age of fifteen entered Kings College, University of Aberdeen, where he remained two years. He took up the study of medicine in Mari- schal College, which he attended for five years, gradu- ating at the end of that time with high honors, and receiving the degrees of M. B. and C. M. He could have completed the course at the age of twenty but was held back until he attained his majority For a short time he was engaged in practice ir Stokesley, Yorkshire, England, with Dr. William Guthrie Forbes, and after the death of his partner came to this country with his parents, in 1889. He spent some time in Manitoba, in charge of an Indiar reserve, having received a government appointment and then, on account of ill health, he removed to Kent county, Ontario, Canada, where he established an office with Dr. J. C. Bell, and where he remained about four years. At the end of that time he re- turned to England, where for two years he was engaged in practice with Dr. S. F. Mclachlan at Longtown, Cumberland. On again coming to America he took up his residence in East Berlin Conn., Oct. 4, 1895, and here he has already estab- lished a good practice, which extends throughou Berlin, Cromwell, Middletown, Newington, Rocky Hill and neighboring towns. He is also medica examiner for a large number of insurance companies in his district. The Doctor is the patentee of wha is known as "Killweed," a preparation which suc cessfully removes the objectionable and unsightly weeds from walks, driveways, etc., and has formec a company for the manufacture of the same. The sale of this valuable preparation is rapidly increas ing, and it is being used with most satsfactory re sults.

On August 26, 1896, Dr. Gammack married Mis: Isabella Catherine Agnes Scott, who was born Aug 27, 1870, and is a daughter of the late Rev. Rober

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Scott, of New York. They have one child, Jean Isabel, born Jan. 2, 1898. The Doctor and his wife are both members of St. Gabriel's Church, of East Berlin, of which his brother Arthur was the first rector, and under whom the church was built. He is also a member of the Independent Order of For- esters, and of several medical societies in Scotland and England. As a physician and citizen he stands high in the community where he now makes his home, and he has made many warm friends during his residence here.

EDWARD BURDEN (deceased) was long a well-known resident of Burnside, and was held in great respect by all who knew him for his many excellencies and personal merits. He was a native of the County of Middlesex, England, came of a well-to-do family, and was born Sept. 17, 1841, a son of John W. and Jane ( Walton) Burden, the former of whom died when the subject of this sketch was but fourteen years of age.

John W. Burden was an undertaker in London, and at his death was possessed of a comfortable competence, sufficiently ample for the rearing and educating of his seven children, three of whom were boys, namely: John W., collector for the Hind & Coup Brewing Co., of London; Edward, the sub- ject of this sketch; and Alfred, clerk for a large tea importing concern, with his residence in a Lon- don suburb. The four daughters are named Emma Z., Jane W., Eliza and Maria. All are still living in England, Jane W. being an inmate of Lord Wing- field's family, in Oxfordshire. The mother was a remarkably intellectual lady and reared her children most respectably ; she was called from their midst in 1895.

Edward Burden for some time assisted his father in the undertaking business prior to the latter's death, and afterwards was in the employ of the London & Northwestern Railway Co. On Oct. I, 1867, in Buckinghamshire, he married Miss Sarah A. Saunders, a native of the county, born June 5, 1846, daughter of James and Sarah ( Barnes) Saun- ders, who were the parents of twelve children. Of these, Mrs. Burden was the second born ; five beside herself are in the United States, and six still live in England.

In June, 1870, Mr. Burden, with his wife and in- fant son, Harold, sailed for the United States in the sailing-ship "Victory," and landed in New York June 21. Mr. Burden went thence to Detroit, Mich., where he lived one year, and then came to Connecticut, as in the meanwhile his wife's brother had settled in th's State. For awhile Mr. Burden was employed in Hartford, and then became agent ar Bolton, Tolland county, for the Hartford, Provi- dence & Fishkill Railroad Co., with which he re- mained seven years, in 1879 coming to Burnside, where he soon afterward erected the dwelling in which he resided until his lamented death, March 18, 1892, his remains being interred in East Hartford.

Mr. Burden was a man of the strictest integrity, and was greatly esteemed wherever he lived. His efforts to keep his word were extraordinary, and his love for his family amounted to adoration. He lived and died a true Christian, having been a life- long member of the Episcopal Church; in politics he was a Democrat, but cared little for office, and al- though he served one terni as a member of the school committee, as a matter of public duty, he declined re-election.

To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Burden were born four children: (1) Harold, born in England, April 3, 1869, died in Detroit, Mich., July 8, 1870, at the age of fifteen months. (2) Mildred, born Sept. 21, 1870, was killed at the Main street cross- ing, East Hartford, by a passing train, Nov. 20, 1891 ; she was twenty-one years old, and her tragic fate was so great a shock to her father that it was the primary cause of his death the following March. (3) Harold, of Burnside, was born Sept. 23, 1873, married Miss Hattie Louise Bragg, and has one child, Mildred L. (4) Charles E. died in infancy. The sad fate of her daughter, and the death of her husband so soon following, caused Mrs. Burden such poignant grief that she sought surcease in a visit to England, found in the change of scene tem- porary relief, and after a few months returned to Burnside, where her landed interests are situated. Here she owns several tenement houses besides her own comfortable residence, which was built for her by her husband.

Mrs. Burden has manifested rare business ability and great determination, and, although she has ex- perienced trials almost beyond the comprehension of the average individual, has maintained her walk through life most nobly, sustained by her faith in the teachings of the Episcopal Church, she being a member of St. John's, at East Hartford, at present ; she was confirmed in England. No lady in Burn- side has more devoted friends, and no one is pos- sessed of more amiable and commendable traits of character, and womanly accomplishments and virtues.

FRANKLIN BALL, for the past twenty-three ycars an employe in the case department of the E. Ingraham Clock Co., was born in Bristol, Conn., June 21, 1835, and is of the seventh generation of the family in New England, the line being traced backward as follows :

(I) Franklin, the subject. (11) Charles Ball, a native of Bristol, born in 1806, lived on Lake Avenue, had a farm of 120 acres, was also a wood turner, and for six years was in partnership in this business with his eldest son, Henry. He never paid much attention to politics, but was very active as a member of the Episcopal Church, being one of the first to join the Bristol congregation. In 1856, he went to Lodi, Ill., engaged in farming for sev- eral years, then, after the close of the Civil war, went to San Francisco and engaged in the same pur-

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suit until his death. He married, Nov. 26, 1826, Miss Isabelle Emiline, born in 1810, a daughter of Dr. Anson Warner, of Plymouth, Conn., and the result of this marriage was six children : Henry, born Dec. 6, 1827, is farming in Russell county, Kans. ; Hiram, born Nov. 23, 1829, is a mechanic in Alexandria, Va .; Mary Ann, born Nov. 23, 1832, is a widow and resides in San Francisco: Franklin, the subject of this sketch, comes next; Orrin, born May 21, 1840, was wounded in the war of the Rebellion, and died shortly afterward in Illinois ; and Francis, who also served in the war of the Re- bellion, is a carpenter by trade and lives in Wood- bury, Connecticut.

(III) Noah Ball, grandfather of subject. (IV) Caleb Ball, Jr., born in 1740. (V) Caleb Ball, Sr., born in 1697. (VI) Jolin Ball, born in 1649. (VII) Allen Ball, born in 16-, was living in New Haven in 1643.

Franklin Ball was primarily educated in the Bris- tol common schools and, later, in the Bristol Acad- emv, which he left at the age of twenty years, in the meantime having assisted his father on the farm. He then married and removed to Illinois where he farmed until 1860, at which time he returned to Bristol and worked one year in the S. E. Root clock shop, and then in the Irenus Atkins clock shop until he enlisted Sept. 20, 1861, in Company C, Tenth C. V. I., and was sworn in as a musician. He was at the battles of Roanoke Island, Newberne, and Goldsboro, at the siege of Charlestown (July 28 to Oct. 25), Drury's Bluff, Bermuda Hundred, Deep Bottom, siege of Petersburg (Aug. 28, to Sept. 29), Hatcher's Run and Appomattox Court House. He was several times struck by balls, but not seriously injured, and was mustered out Oct. 7, 1864. On his return from the war he again entered the employ of Mr. Atkins as clock case maker, and worked with him until 1877, when the concern failed; he then found employment in the case department of the E. Ingraham Co., where he has worked during the past twenty-three years.

Mr. Ball was united in marriage Feb. 5, 1856, to Miss Laura Aletta Barnum, who was born March 14, 1838, in Bethany, Penn., and is a daughter of Ansel Hoyt Barnum. The children that have graced this union were Charles Ansel, born June 5, 1857, died Sept. 11, 1857; Frank Eugene, born Jan. 24, 1859, was married April 24, 1883, to Miss Rosalie Pappi, of New York City, and has two children, Earle Vincent, born May 30, 1884. and Genevieve Aletta, born Dec. 21, 1888 (the father has for the last twenty-four years been employed in the rule department of the Benedict & Burnham Co., at Waterbury) ; Frances Eugenie, twin of Frank Eu- gene, died Aug. 11, 1859.

Mr. Ball was formerly a member of the Episcopal Church, in which he was a vestryman, but he and wife are now identified with the Prospect M. E. Church, she being a member of the Ladies' Aid So- ciety. Mr. Ball is affiliated with the G. W. Thompson

Post, No. 13, G. A. R., of which he is a past com- mander, and has been chaplain for ten years, and his wife is a member of the Woman's Relief Corps, in which she has held the offices of junior and senior vice-president. Mr. Ball has been a delegate to the National Encampment of the G. A. R., and aid on Commander-in-chief Weiserts' and Gen. Alger's staffs; he has also been installing officer and in- specting officer of different Posts of the State de- partment for the past ten years, is at present chief mustering officer of the department of Connecticut, G. A. R., chaplain of Post No. 13, chaplain of Bris- tol Grange No. 116, and vice-president of the 10th C. V. Veteran Association. He is likewise a member of the Alger Staff Association of the United States, of which Mrs. Gen. Russell A. Alger is the only lady honorary member.

In politics Mr. Ball is a Republican. He has served on the grand jury, but has never sought office, although he is an extremely popular gentle- man.

HON. BURWELL CARTER, a prominent brass founder, and one of the most influential and public-spirited citizens of Plainville, was born in Wolcott, New Haven Co., Conn., Nov. 13, 1827, a son of Reuben and Mary ( Bailey) Carter.

His maternal grandparents were Deacon James and Theda Bailey, of Wolcott, while his paternal grandparents were Stephen and Triphena (Upson) Carter, also of Wolcott. Stephen Carter was a son of Jacob and Mary ( Barnes) Carter, the for- mer of whom was an early settler of Southington, this county, where he died July 6, 1796. He was a son of Jacob and Dorcas (Tyler) Carter. Jacob Carter, Sr., came to this State from Southold, Long Island, and located in Branford. The father of our subject was born in Wolcott in 1793, and was reared upon a farm in that town, where he subse- quently followed farming up to 1837, when he re- moved to Plainville, and here worked as a brass molder until his death, in 18440. In his family were eight children, namely: Lucas H .; Theda, wife of S. F. Clark; Selina D., wife of Edward Twitchel ; Timothy U .; James B .; Burwell; and two who died in infancy.

The boyhood and youth of our subject were passed in Wolcott and Plainville, and he received a common-school education. At the age of fifteen years he commenced work as a helper in the brass foundry of his brother, L. H. Carter, in Plain- ville and in Ansonia, and he continued to work in brass foundries in various towns until he had thor- oughly mastered the business in every detail. In 1875 he purchased the plant of his brother in Plain- ville, and has since successfully conducted it, having built up a most excellent trade.

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Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 1, Part 111

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1336

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1336