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 169

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 169

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Mr. Gaines first married, May 15, 1877, Miss

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Jessie C. Spencer, a native of Manchester, and a daughter of Ralph G. and Harriet ( Williams ) Spencer, to which union were born two children : Raymond S., now in the employ of C. S. Hills & Co., of Hartford; and Arthur H., who is attending the East Hartford High School. Mrs. Jessie C. Gaines passed away Feb. 16, 1894, and on June 17, 1895, Mr. Gaines married Miss Mary E. Griswe'd, aiso a native of Manchester, and a daughter of Ed- ward Hubbard and Harriet ( White) Griswold.

Mr. and Mrs. Gaines are active members of the First Congregational Church; the two sons also belong to the Church, and are prominently con- nected with the Christian Endeavor Society.

Raymond, the oldest son, was married April 4, 1900, to Helen J. Williams, "a most estimable young lady," daughter of Arthur J. Williams, formerly of Windham, "now of this town." Mr. Gaines lived only seventeen days after marriage, having died on the 21st from pneumonia, and was buried the 24th. The sad blow came as a shock to the entire com- munity.

JAMES BAKER WILLIAMS. In studying the lives and character of prominent and prosperous men we are naturally led to inquire into the secret of their success, and the motives that have prompted their action. Success is a question of genius, as held by many, but is it not rather a matter of ex- perience and sound judgment ? For when we trace the career of those who stand highest in public es- teem we find in nearly every case that they are those who have risen gradually, fighting their own way, in the face of all opposition. Self-reliance, conscientiousness, energy, honesty-these are the traits of character that insure the highest emolu- ments and greatest success. To these may we at- tribute the success that has crowned the efforts of J. B. Williams, a well-known manufacturer of Glastonbury, Connecticut.

Mr. Williams was born in Lebanon, New Lon- don Co., Conn., Feb. 2, 1818, a son of Solomon and Martha (Baker) Williams. On the paternal side he traces his ancestry back to Robert Williams, a native of Norwich, England, who arrived in Rox- bury, Mass., in 1638, and was made a freeman the same year. In England he married Elizabeth Stalham, who died in 1674, aged eighty years, and for his second wife he married Martha Story, who died in 1708, aged ninety-two. He died Sept. I, 1693, aged eighty-six years. By his first marriage he had three sons: Samuel, born in 1632; Isaac, born in 1638, and Stephen born in 1644. The eldest inherited the homestead which is still owned and occupied by his descendants. Thomas Williams graduated at Oxford, England, in 1673. Oliver Cromwell (the Protector and Pretender ), according to Rev. M. Russell, LL. D., and other writers, was a Williams, and assumed the name of Cromwell, the family signing themselves "Crom- well, alias Williams," down to the reign of James I.

(II) Isaac Williams, the second son of Robert, located in Newton, Mass., and was one of the founders and first deacons of the Congregational Church in that town. He married (first) Martha Parke, a daughter of Dr. William Parke, and their children were Isaac, born in 1661; Martha, 1603; William, 1665; John, 1667; Elcazer, 1669; and Thomas, 1673. For his second wife he married Judith Cooper, by whom .he had three children : Peter, born in 1680; Sarah, 1688; and Ephraim, 16)I.

(III) Rev. William Williams, the second son of Deacon Isaac Williams, of Newton, was gradu- ated at Harvard College in 1683, and in 1685 became pastor of the Congregational Church in Hatfield, Alass., where he remained as such for fifty-six years. In 1686 he married Elizabeth Cotton, by whom he had three children: Rev. William, of Weston, born in 1688; Martha, born in 1690; and Rev. Elisha, born in 1694, who made his home in Newington, Hartford Co., Conn., for a time, and later was rector or president of Yale College. In 1699. Rev. Williams married, for his second wife, Christian, daughter of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Mass., and to them were born three children : Solomon, in 1701; Israel, in 1709; and Dorothy, in 1713. The father of this family died in Hatfield, Mass., in 1741. Rev. Solomon Will- iams was own cousin to Jonathan Edwards, at one time president of Princeton College, and a volumi- inous writer.

(IV) Rev. Solomon Williams, D. D., the elder son by the second union, was pastor of the First Church in Lebanon, Conn., for fifty-four years. He was married, in 1723, to Mary, daughter of Judge Samuel Porter, of Hatfield, Mass., and to them were born the following children: (1) Solomon, born in 1725, died soon after graduating from Yale College in 1743. (2) Rev. Eliphalet, D. D., born in 1727, died in 1803, after having served fifty-six years as pastor of the church in East Hartford, Conn. His son Solomon was called to the church of his great- grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, and was pastor of the same for over fifty years. (3) Ezekiel-father of Thomas S., chief justice of Connecticut; Rev. Samuel P., of Newburyport, Mass .; and Major John, of Wethersfield-was born in 1729, and died at his home in Wethersfield, Conn., in 1818. (4) William, born in 1731, was for about forty sessions a member of the Connecticut Legislature; town clerk of Lebanon many years ; and in 1776 a member of the Continental Congress and Signer of the Dec- laration of Independence. He married Mary Trum- bull, daughter of George Jonathan Trumbull, who was governor of Connecticut during the Revolu- tion. (5) Mary, born in 1733, married Richard Salter, of Mansfield, Conn. (6) Thomas, born in 1735, is mentioned more fully below. (7) Chris- tain, born in 1738, married John Salter, of Mans- field. (8) Eunice, born in 1745, married Rev. Tim- othv Stone, of Goshen parish, in Lebanon, and died in Cornwall, Conn., in 1836, aged ninety-one years.

DatB. Williams

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(V) Dr. Thomas Williams, the youngest son of Rev. Solomon, and a graduate of Yale College and of the Yale Medical School. was a physician, and lived on his father's homestead, dying there in 1819. He married Rebecca Wells, of East Hartford, a lineal descendant of Thomas Wells, an early gov- ernor of Connecticut, and their only children were Solomon and Mary (twins), born in 1783. The latter never married, and died at the home of her brother in East Hartford, in 1831.

(VI) Solomon Williams, the son, was the father of our subject. He died in Manchester, Conn., in 1875, aged ninety-two years. In 1806 he married Martha Baker, of Brooklyn, Conn., and to them were born children as follows: Rebecca Wells, born in 1807, married Rev. Story Hebbard, and died in Beirut, Syria, in 1840; he was stationed on the island of Malta, she in the Syrian Mission. Thomas Scott, born in 1812, was a civil engineer ; in 1846 he married Ellen Goodwin, of East Hart- ford, and he died in 1875, leaving four children. Samuel Porter, born in 1814, was a merchant and banker for many years in Lima, Ind. He married (first) Lydia Hume and (second) her sister, Isa- bella Hume, who both died before him, and he died in California, March 31, 1897, leaving four children. Sarah Trumbull, born in 1816, married Edwin Robinson, of Brooklyn, Conn., a direct descendant of John Robinson, of Leyden, and had three chil- dren ; he died Feb. 8, 1881, she on March 12, 1900. James Baker, our subject, is next in the order of birth. George Wells, born in 1820, married Martha Woodbridge, of Manchester, Conn., by whom he had one son, Charles S., of Hartford. William Stuart, born in 1822, wedded Mary Edwards Good- win, of East Hartford, and was for over forty vears associated in business with our subject ; he and his wife both died recently, leaving four children. John Albert, born in 1824, was a civil engineer, for some years employed on the Boston Water Works, and later in contracting on the railroad from Gal- veston north to Austin, Texas; he was married in Texas to Caroline Sherman, and died in Galveston of yellow fever, in 1866, leaving one son, Albert Sidney. Solomon Stoddard, born in 1826 in Leb- anon, died in Manchester, Conn., in 1847. Martha Huntington, born in 1828 in East Hartford, was married in 1862 to Bryan E. Hooker, a lineal de- scendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first minister of Hartford ; he died in 1888, leaving three children. Mrs. Hooker is still living.

The mother of our subject was a daughter of Dr. Joseph Baker, of Brooklyn, Conn., a neighbor of Gen. Israel Putnam, who, when news came of the battles of Concord and Lexington, in 1775, at once raised a regiment of soldiers, Dr. Baker going with him to Boston, as surgeon of the regiment. Her mother was a granddaughter of Rev. M. Devotion, of Suffield, and daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, of Scotland parish, Windham, Conn. Two of Mrs. Williams' brothers were officers in the

United States army, having enlisted during the war of 1812. Capt. James Baker continued in the ser- vice until disabled by illness, while the other, Col. Rufus L. Baker, remained until about 1851, when he resigned rather than obey orders from Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, requiring the sending of arms and ammunition to Southern arsenals and forts.

( VII) James B. Williams, our subject, was born in 1818, at Lebanon, in the house occupied by his great-grandfather fifty-four years, by his grand- father eighty-four years, and by his father forty- six years. He acquired his education in the public schools of Lebanon, East Hartford and Hartford, and attended the East Hartford Academy for two terms. Among his teachers were T. L. Wright and his assistant, N. W. Spencer, and a Mr. Knox. In early life he lived for one summer with Mrs. Benjamin Olmstead, in East Hartford, where he did all kinds of work that a boy could do, one of his oc- cupations being to drive several cows to the pasture. In the spring of 1832 he left the Stone school on Dorr (now Market) street, Hartford, and went as a farm boy to live with Deacon Horace Pitkin, of Manchester, with whom he spent two summers, and who taught him how to work and to do it easily, which knowledge has been of great benefit to him in later years.

In the spring of 1834 Mr. Williams entered the employ of F. & H. C. Woodbridge, nephews of Deacon Pitkin, as clerk in their store on Manchester Green, and retained that position for over four years, receiving only $25 the first year, and $35 the second. Feeling the need of a more thorough edu- cation, he made it a rule, after closing the store at nine, to study until eleven in the evening, and to rise at five in the morning and study until time to open the store. This practice he followed for many years, and as one of the partners was an apothecary, hav- ing a well-stocked department in that line, the young man soon learned to put up physicians' prescrip- tions and to compound their preparations, spending much of his leisure time and evenings in studying chemistry. The knowledge of that science, thus obtained, has proven invaluable in his present busi- ness. In 1838, when F. Woodbridge, senior mem- ber of the firm, moved away, his partner, C. G. Keeney, offered our subject a half-interest in the business, and the name was changed to Keeney & Williams. In 1840 he sold his share in the busi- ness, with the exception of the drug department, to the late Christopher A. Woodbridge, and then formed a partnership with his brother, George W. Williams. In connection with their regular drug business they commenced manufacturing a variety of compounds, such as all apothecaries sell, but few make. While in Manchester Mr. Williams be- came convinced that there was a great and increas- sing demand for a better quality of shaving soap than could then be had, and he began a series of ex- periments, hoping to produce it. These were con-

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tinted for over two years, small quantities being made and given to neighbors and friends to test. After finding that the same quality could be pro- duced every time it was put on the market, with the name of "Williams' Genuine Yankee Soap." Its superior quality and peculiar name soon brought it into notice, and its reputation led many other soap manufacturers to imitate its form and to use its trade mark. Imitations were made in New York, Philadelphia, Rochester, Chicago, and other places, scores of them, compelling Williams Brothers to bring suits at law to maintain their trade marks, yet securing injunctions in every suit they com- menced. This business was continued in Manches- ter until 1847, when, having divided the business with his brother, our subject moved to Glastonbury, where he had rented from his father-in-law, the late David Hubbard, a small gristmill, and here he con- tinted to manufacture shaving soap and a few other articles. After a year or more another brother, the late William S. Williams, joined him in busi- ness, and the name was changed to James B. Will- iams & Co., remaining such until 1885, when a joint-stock company was formed under the laws of the State of Connecticut, known as the J. B. Will- iams Company. Of this corporation James B. Williams is president ; his son, David W. Williams, vice-president ; his nephew, George G. Williams, treasurer ; and his son, Samuel H. Williams, chemist. The gristmill used by Mr. Williams on coming to Glastonbury, in 1847, afforded less than 2,500 square feet of floor space, while the company now use about 100,000 square feet, or forty times as much. They have customers in every city in the United States and Canada, also in London, England, and Sydney, Australia, France, Germany, Russia, and South Africa, and much is sold in the East Indias, South America and Mexico. In this State there is probably not a manufacturer whose product is used by as many different persons or has for years occupied as distinctive a position on account of its excellence, as Williams' Yankee Shaving Soap. After almost sixty years of business, although commenc- ing with borrowed capital, Mr. Williams can say that no check or note bearing his signature has ever been dishonored or protested ; every claim has been paid in full; no customer has ever been lost unless going out of business; and with scarcely an exception his sales have always been greater each year than the year previous. He is also president of the Williams Brothers Manufacturing Co., of Glastonbury, and of the Vermont Farm Machine Co., of Bellows Falls, Vermont.

In 1845 Mr. Williams married Miss Jerusha M. Hubbard, eldest daughter of David Hubbard, of Glastonbury. She was born there May 5. 1825, and lied Nov. 20, 1866, her remains being interred in the Glastonbury cemetery. By this union there were six children : (1) Mary Ellen is at home with her father. (2) David Willard was married, Oct. 23, 1876, to IIelen Penfield Rankin, daughter of

Rev. S. G. W. Rankin, and they have five chil- dren, Helen Louise, born in 1878; James Willard, 1885; Mildred, 1887 ; Ruth Clarissa, 1890; and Isa- belle Stoddard, 1894. (3) Martha Baker is at home. (4) Jessie Elizabeth is the wife of Henry F. Welch, of Charleston, S. C. (5) James Stod- dard was married, Aug. 4, 1887, to Katherine Phil- lips Clarke, daughter of Judge R. L. B. Clarke, of Washington, and they have four children, Kath- erine Stoddard, born in 1889; Helen Devotion, 1891; Percy Huntington, 1894; and Edith Clarke, 1896. (6) Samuel Hubbard was married, Jan. 9, 1889, to Frances Ann Scudder, daughter of Rev. William Scudder, D. D., a missionary in India, and they have three children, Carrol Scudder, born in 1890; Frances Rosseau, 1891 ; and Martha Hunt- ngton, 1896. Mr. Williams was again married, his second union being, in 1869, with Miss Julia Elizabeth Hubbard, a younger sister of his first wife, and a daughter of David and Jerusha ( Hollis- ter) Hubbard. For many years the names of Hub- bard and Hollister were the most numerous and prominent in Glastonbury. The first of the Hub- bard family to locate in that town was George, who settled there when it formed a part of Weth- ersfield, and from whom many of the name in that and other towns have descended. Mrs. Williams was born in Glastonbury May 10, 1839, and by her marriage to our subject has become the mother of two children : Anne Shelton, at home ; and Richard Solomon, who is attending Amherst College.

Mr. Williams is now practically living retired, though he may be found in his office almost daily, attending to some business. His activity for one of his age is certainly remarkable, and not one in ten thousand, at the age of eighty-two, has his elasticity of step. His mind is as clear as it was forty years ago, and his memory is remarkably good. Since 1886 he has been spending his winters in the South, mostly in Leesburg, Fla. He is a man of regular habits, takes exercise daily, hoes in the garden, and does other light work about his splendid home and grounds. He has never used tobacco or liquor, and to these habits may be attributed his excellent health. When a boy of nine years he signed the temperance pledge, and has never broken it. He seldom allows a day to pass but what he attends to business of some kind in his office, and his advice is often sought on business matters, his years of experience making his opinions very valuable. There is no kinder, or more approachable and un- assuming man in the town than Mr. Williams.

Our subject cast his first Presidential vote for Gen. W. H. Harrison in 1840, and his three brothers supported the same candidate. He remained a Whig until the organization of the Republican party, when he joined its ranks, and has since been one of its stanch supporters. He was elected to the Lower House of the State Legislature in 1863 and 1864, and during his first term was a member of the committee on Education ; during the second he

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was a member of the committee on Engrossed Bills. Prior to this he had several times declined to be- come a candidate for that office, and later refused a re-nomination. While a resident of Manchester he served as recorder of voters during the existence of that office. At the age of eighteen he enlisted in the East IHartford Artillery Company, which was composed of very able-bodied men, trained one day, and was chosen corporal; but as his duties as an apothecary required his daily attention, and would exempt him from military duty, he resigned his office and connection with the company, giving his cap, sword and uniform to a substitute.

In 1838 Mr. Williams united with the First Con- gregational Church in Manchester, and in 1848 was received into the First Church of Christ, in Glas- tonbury. He was chosen deacon of the latter church in 1859, and has filled that office continuously since. He takes a very active and prominent part in church work, and his place in the congregation would be hard to fill. He is a member of the Connecticut Historical Society, the Connecticut Congregational Club, the Harrison Veteran Club, the Good Temp- lars, and Sons of the American Revolution. Mir. Williams has the greatest respect possible shown to him on all' occasions, and by every one. He is a man about whom there cannot be truthfully said anything but good ; many of his kind and extremely generous acts have been hidden from the public, and those that have become known have been told of by the recipient. No man could hand down to posterity a cleaner, better record, as a useful man whose influence has always been for good.

ELIJAH DANFORTH ABRAMS is a leading milk dealer and representative citizen of West Hart- ford, his home being at Foote's Corners.

Mr. Abrams was born in Duanesburg, N. Y., Oct. 27, 1860, a son of J. Danforth Abrams, also a native of Duanesburg, where he spent the greater part of his life, engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was one of the boys in blue whose life was sacrificed on the altar of his country during the Civil war, serving as a member of a New York regiment of infantry, and died at Fortress Monroe, Va., in 1864. He married Miss Susan Ladd, a sister of George W. Ladd, of Bloomfield, Conn., and to them were born two sons: Alva E., now a physi- cian of Hartford, Conn., with office at No. 78, High street ; and Elijah D., our subject. The paternal grandparents of our subject were Elnathan and Anna (Strong) Abrams, farming people of Duanes- burg, N. Y., where the former died in 1861.

Elijah D. Abrams attended the public schools of his native town, where he obtained a good prac- tical education. When his school days were over he clerked for the firm of Cheney & Heulett, builders of Brooklyn, N. 'Y., and subsequently worked in the locomotive works at Schenectady, N. Y., for three years, after which he engaged in farming in Duanesburg for the same length of time. In April,

1890, lie came to West Hartford, Hartford Co., Conn., and located on the J. B. Griswold farm, at Foote's Corners, where he has since engaged in the milk business with a fair degree of success, his patronage being quite extensive. Fraternally he is a member of the Grange, but has neither time nor inclination for public affairs. He was married in Charleston, Montgomery Co., N. Y., to Miss Nettie B. Conover, and he and his estimable wife have made many friends during their residence in this county.

GEORGE EDWARD CHURCHILL, who is now representing Newington in the State Legisla- ture, and is one of the most prominent factors in her agricultural circles, is a man whose worth and ability have gained him success, honor and public confidence. He was born Dec. 11, 1858, on the farm where he now resides, in a house which stood just in front of his present residence, and he is a rep- resentative of an old prominent Colonial family. Three branches of the Churchill family came to America at an early day : John, of Plymouth, Mass. ; Josiah, of Wethersfield, Conn. ; and Will.am, of Manhattan, N. Y. In 1664 Joseph Churchill, son of Josiah, gave a deed for land sold which is still in the possession of the family, and the ink is as black as it was the day the document was written.

Our subject traces his ancestry back to his great- great-grandfather, Capt. Charles Churchill, of Revo- utionary fame, who was born in 1723. Gen. Wash- ington and his staff were quartered in the old Churchill homestead for some time, and the Gen- eral's horses were kept in John Rowley's barn, which was recently destroyed by fire. The ancestors of our subject furnished shoes and provisions for the Continental army, and the old tan vats, where the leather was prepared for the shoes, still stand near the old homestead, which has now crumbled to the ground. To this family belonged Silas Churchill, who in 1805, at Windham, Greene Co., N. Y., de- livered a masterly sermon, which was heartily en- dorsed by the Presbytery, and they desired the same to be printed.

The great-grandfather of our subject was Sam- uel Churchill, and the grandfather was Chislew Churchill, who was born on the old homestead in Newington Dec. 7, 1779, and was a shoemaker by trade. The latter was married, March 31, 1806, to Miss Cylinda Hurlburt, of Portland, Conn. Their son, Samuel Seymour Churchill, father of our sub- ject, was born on the home farm Feb. 28, 1825, in the same house where our subject's birth occurred. He followed the occupation of farming throughout life, and lived in the old homestead with his son until his death, April 2, 1900. On Nov. II, 1846, he married Miss Louisa Hunt, and to them were born two children. Henry Dwight Churchill, the elder, was born May 5, 1849, and is now engaged in the bakery business in Cairo, N. Y. The father is a Democrat in politics, and is honored and respected by all who know him.

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

George E. Churchill, the subject of this review, spent his boyhood on the farm, attended the public schools of Newington, and also studied at home. At one time it was his intention to enter the min- istry, but later he changed his mind. From 1880 to 1884 he successfully engaged in teaching in the old "Bell" school, which was burned in 1888. On abandoning that profession he turned his attention to agriculture, and has since operated the home farm with most gratifying results. He has erected thereon a large eight-room residence, in modern style of architecture, and has also built a large barn and made many other improvements upon the place.

On Aug. 23, 1888, Mr. Churchill was united in marriage with Miss Anna Malinda Wickham, who was born in Manchester, Conn., March 22, 1867, a daughter of William and Ann S. (Sanders) Wick- ham, of Hillstown. They now have two children : Almeron Seymour, who was born July 27, 1889, and is attending the Newington public schools; and Louisa Ann, born Sept. 12, 1898.

In his political views Mr. Churchill is a stanch Republican. He was an efficient member of the board of school visitors for six years; has been registrar of electors for several years, and is now serving his third year as a member of the board of relief. At the urgent request of his many friends he accepted the nomination for representative in 1898, and in November of that year was elected to the State Legislature, by a majority of sixty-eight, over Shuball H. Whapples, of Newington Junction, the largest majority ever given to a Republican in the history of the town. He has the entire con- fidence of his constituents, and is now ably and satisfactorily representing his district. Fraterally he is a popular member of Our Brothers Council, No. 41, Sr. O. U. A. M., in which he has passed all the chairs, and both he and his wife belonged to the Grange until it disbanded. They hold membership in the Congregational Church, and Mr. Churchill has been president of the Christian Endeavor So- ciety.

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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 169

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