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 87

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 87

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EDWIN CHARLES BISHOP. That man suc- ceeds who thoroughly knows his business, believes in it, and works unceasingly in its extension. Mr. Bishop is a well-known manufacturer of ladders at Hartford. From his father he learned all the details. relating to the business, and is enthusiastically de- voted to it. Since he has assumed full management

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of the works he is probably the best-known ladder manufacturer in the United States.

Mr. Bishop was born in Boston, Mass., March 28, 1860, son of Carlos E. Bishop, who is a native of Stanstead, Quebec. Our subject spent his early years with his father, residing in Boston and Provi- dence, and then coming with his parents to Hart- ford, where he was educated in the grammar school, later entering a business college in Stanstead, Province of Quebec, where he took a commercial course. Returning to Hartford he acquired, under the direction of his father, a knowledge of the prac- tical side of the manufacture of ladders. Then, taking a wagon, he acted in the capacity of sales- man, driving over all the various routes covered by the eight wagons of the father, taking the places of the different men and becoming acquainted with the many customers throughout the New England States, and also in the State of New York. This commercial work he followed some fifteen years, visiting during that time nearly every town of any importance in these States. In 1888 he purchased a half interest in the business and became manager, in which position, associated with his father, he continued until 1892, since which time he has con- ducted the business individually. His trade has in- creased greatly, and he is now running fifteen wagons, keeping two additional salesmen, who travel upon the road and take orders from the wholesale trade. He has a trade extending all over the United States, has made a number of mprovements in the ladders, has taken out several patents, and ranks as one of the foremost manufacturers of Hartford.

Mr. Bishop married, in 1885, Mary E. Pelton, a native of Somers, Conn., daughter of Asa Pelton, a prominent farmer in that locality. In politics Mr. Bishop is a stanch Republican.

HON. SAMUEL QUINCY PORTER, an hon- ored and highly esteemed citizen of Unionville, be- longs to a prominent old English family whose coat of arms were: Sable, three church bells, argent ; canton, ermines : motto-Vigilantia et l'irtus.

Mr. Porter traces his ancestry back to William de la Port, also called William de la Grande, a Roman Knight, who went to England at the time of the Conquest in the train of William the Con- queror. From him the line is traced through the following: (II) Ralph de la Port; (III) Robert de la Port; (IV) Hugh de la Port, who married a daughter of William Russell: (\') John Porter, of Markham, England, who married a daughter of Gardiner, of Bishop Norton: (VI) John Porter : (VII) Augustine Porter, of Belton, who mar- ried a daughter of Smythe: (VIII) John Porter : (IX) William Porter, of Wryhall, who married Jane Bussey; (X) John Porter, the f under of the family in the New World, who was born in 1500, and in 1633, with his wife Rose, came to New England, two years later becoming one of the founders of Windsor, Conn .; (XI) Sam-

uel Porter, born in England in 1626, who married Hannah, daughter of Thomas Stanley, of Hartford, and in 1659 removed to Hadley, Mass., where he died in 1689: (XII) Samuel Porter, born in 1660, who married Joanna Cooke, of Hadley, Feb. 22, 1683; (XIII) Eleazer Porter, born Feb. 28, 1698, who married Sarah Pitkin; (XIV) Eleazer Porter, born June 27, 1728, who married Susannah, daugh ter of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, of Northampton, Mass .; (XV) William Porter, born Dec. 9, 1763, a merchant, farmer and physician, who died in old Hadley, Mass., about 1868. The latter first married Lois Eastman, by whom he had two children : John and William (the father of our subject). For his second wife he married Charlotte Williams.

(XVI) William Porter was born in Hadley, Mass., Nov. 14, 1792, and was graduated at Will- iams College in 1813. He became a prominent and successful attorney of Lee, Mass., and from 1844 until 1852 was district attorney for the four west- ern counties of that State. Ile also became an im- portant factor in public affairs, and was a member of the Lower House and State Senate of Massachusetts. In politics he was a Whig. He died in Lee, Feb. II, 1853, and his wife, Mary Ann Quincy, daughter of Samuel Quincy,, of Lenox, Mass., died Dec. 2, 1835. They had four children: William, born Jan. IO, 1820, has been a professor in Beloit College, Beloit, Wis., for the past fifty years; Dr. William Porter, Jr., of Hartford, Conn., and Prof. Frank C. Porter, of the Divinity School at New Haven, Conn., are his sons. Samuel Quincy, our subject, is next in the family. Charlotte, born in 1823, died in 1838. Mary Weld, born March 2, 1824, married Frank Chamberlain.

(XVII) Samuel Q. Porter, our subject, was born in Lee, Mass., May 31, 1821, and his early school clays were passed at that place and at old Hadley, Mass. When a young man he clerked in a grocery store in Lee, and later engaged in general mercantile business there for four years. In 1847 he came to Unionville, Conn., and later with William Platner engaged in the manufacture of fine writing paper, under the firm name of Platner & Porter. In 1853 the style was changed to the Platner & Porter Manu- facturing Co., and our subject remained a member of the firm until 1877, when he retired from the busi- ness. The mill is still operated under the old name, but by different owners.

Besides the ancestor; already mentioned, Mr. Porter is of the seventh generation in descent from Thomas Hooker, William Westwood, Thomas Stanley. Timothy Stanley and Ozias Goodwin.

On May 31, 1848, Mr. Porter was united in mar- riage with Miss Maria Hulbert. of Lee. Mass., by whom he had two children : (1) Mary Weld is now the wife of William P. Beardsley, of Auburn, N. Y., and they have two children, Alice Taylor and Glover. (2) William died in infancy. Mr. Porter was again married, in Farmington, Conn., in 1861, his second union being with Miss Frances A. Smith,

Jaws Porter

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and to them were born six children : Samuel Q., Jr., a resident of lowa, who is married and has one son, James Alwood; Kate Hulbert, who died in infancy ; Elizabeth Quincy; Henry Hulbert, a resident of New York City; Frances Morgan, who died in in- fancy ; and Lucy G.

Public-spirited and progressive, Mr. Porter has taken a very active part in the improvement of his town, and most of the fine shade trees of the village were set out by him many years ago. He has also been prominently identified with public affairs. In 1860 he was a member of the convention, held at Chicago, that nominated Lincoln, and he was an in- fluential member of the State Legislature in 1869, 1870, 1881, 1882 and 1899. He also served as savings bank commissioner in 1881 and 1882. After a useful and honorable career he can well afford to lay aside all business cares and spend his declining years in ease and retirement.

REV. GEORGE MARVIN STONE, D. D., pastor of the Asylum Avenue Baptist Church, of Hartford, has filled the pulpit of that church for more than twenty-one years, and his strong per- sonality has deeply impressed itself upon the relig- ious history of Connecticut. He is a native of Ohio, born Dec. 10, 1834, at Strongville, in the Western Reserve, and the grandson of an early emigrant from Vermont.

Ebenezer and Analı (Ferry) Stone, the paternal grandparents of our subject, migrated with their family from the old farm in Vermont to Ohio in 1823, and became pioneers in the Western Reserve. The family came originally from Somersetshire, England, and the progenitor of the family in America settled at Cambridge, Mass., soon after the Pilgrims came over. In religious belief Ebenezer and Analı Stone had been members of the Congregational Church, but after their settlement in Ohio joined the Episcopal Church. They had a family of four sons. Both lived to a good old age, Ebenezer to the age of eighty, and his wife, who was a native of Connecticut, to the age of seventy-five.

Marvin E. Stone, the father of our subject, was born at Hinesburg, Vt., and in 1823 migrated with his parents to Ohio. He married Hannah West, and to them were born nine children, of whom George Marvin, our subject, was the eldest. Mr. Stone followed farming at Strongville, Ohio, up to the time of his death, which resulted, at the age of seventy-five years, from an accident caused by a horse running away.

The early settlers in Ohio were men of integrity and moral fiber. They came very largely from Con- necticut, and the old familiar names of Hartford were reproduced in and about Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Stone's earliest recollections are connected with the felling of great forest trees, and the burning of great piles of wood to clear the ground for sowing wheat. Hartford was often mentioned in the fam- ily, for in that city dwelt the man who held the mort-

gage on the home farm. This mortgage clouded Dr. Stone's early life, and it was a day of jubilee when the last payment was made.

At the age of fifteen, Dr. Stone began life for himself in the city of Cleveland. His first occupa- tion was that of selling papers, and here it may be said parenthetically, that Dr. Stone has a soft spot in his heart for the newsboys. At the Post dinner in Hartford to these young merchants, he was an interested spectator, one of the few who could ap- prcciate their feelings. When sixteen years of age, Dr. Stone was at work in the office of The True Democrat, now the Cleveland Leader, and at eighteen he had become one of its local editors. The taste for a journalistic career, acquired thus early, has never deserted the reverend gentleman, and he has done a great deal of writing for the religious and secular press since that time.

The True Democrat was intensely anti-slavery in its political complexion, and the young editor found himself very much interested in the stirring political events of that period, being connected with such men as Joseph Medill and Alfred Cowles. In the campaign of 1852, he made a number of ad- dresses for Hale and Julian, the Free-Soil nominees. While engaged in newspaper life, he joined the Sec- ond Baptist Church in Cleveland, and soon after de- cided to devote his life to the ministry. He had no funds with which to gain the required education, and decided to engage in school teaching for a time. Hearing of an opening in Kentucky, he went there and applied for the position. This section was in the slavery district, and the young man soon realized what a mistake he had made. The school committee, in examining him, asked him what his record was, and when he replied that he came from the North the information was received in silence and with dark- ened faces. "How are you on the main issue?" was the next question, but the examination luckily went no further that day. At night in his bed Dr. Stone began to examine his own record in the light of the events of that day, and the fact that he had been prominently identified with an anti-slavery paper, and made addresses in Ohio for the Free-Soil can- didates, came to him with all its significance and pos- sible danger. He decided that the "record" need never be completed before that examining board of school committeemen. In the morning he told his landlady that he would go up to Lexington to attend to some business there, and started at once. He visited Henry Clay's grave, which was then a fresh one. From Lexington he took the train for Paris, Ky., arriving there penniless, but determined to reach the Ohio border as soon as possible. He was given food and shelter by a kind-hearted innkeeper, who long ago received every penny that was due her, and Dr. Stone arrived safely on Ohio soil. In recalling this incident, he says that the fact that he was once homeless and friendless, without a penny to purchase the necessities of life, has ever since given him sympathy for tramps. No one who has

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never experienced this sensation, can fully appre- ciate what it means.

Dr. Stone soon found an opportunity to enter Williston Seminary at East Hampton, Mass., and later entered Madison (now Colgate) University, at Hamilton, N. Y., where he graduated in 1858, with the degree of A. B. He studied for the ministry at the Hamilton Theological Seminary, and was soon after called to Danbury, Conn., where he preached as a student. He was ordained there in September, 1860, Dr. Turnbull, of Hartford, preaching the sermon. He continued at Danbury for seven years, having a most successful pastorate, but ill health compelled him to give it up, and in September, 1867, he removed to Minnesota, becoming pastor of the First Baptist Church of Winona, where he re- mained two years and a half.

In 1870 Dr. Stone was called to the Jefferson Street Baptist Church in Milwaukee, Wis., and in 1872 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Chicago University. After a pastorate in Milwaukee of three years and a half, he returned to the East, and settled with the Baptist Church in Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson, N. Y., in September, 1873. In June, 1879, accepted a call to the Asylum Avenue Baptist Church in Hartford, where he has remained ever since, a record which is exceeded by only one Baptist minister in the State. Since he came to Hartford, Dr. Stone has been called to three other churches, once to Norwich, once to Washing- ton, D. C., and once to Minneapolis, to succeed the Rev. Dr. H. C. Mabie, now . the secretary of the Baptist Missionary Union. Before deciding whether to accept or decline this call, Dr. Stone went to Minneapolis to look over the field. In a sermon preached there the Doctor referred to his attach- ment at Hartford, saying that for eleven years he had served his congregation there, that his dead were there, and that strong associations tended to bind him to that locality. He decided later to re- main at Hartford, to the great satisfaction of his congregation.

Dr. Stone's long pastorate at Hartford has been an eminently successful one. That he is highly esteemed and beloved by his congregation is too well-known to need mention. Since his pastorate began, the church has been enlarged to twice its former size, and is one of the most pleasant in the city. The present membership is over 250, and the records of the church show a steady growth since Dr. Stone's installation. In term of service he is third among all the pastors of the city.

It is not alone as a pastor and clergyman that Dr. Stone is known. His marked literary tastes and abilities have given him prominence as a writer, both in prose and in poetry. He is fond of travel, and has utilized the results of his observations in lectures and letters to the Press, which have attracted wide attention. He has contributed quite frequent- ly to the Press. Dr. Stone has made a number of visits to Europe, and has made researches in Egypt

and the Holy Land. In 1866 he went to Alaska, gathering information about that then little known country, which has proved very valuable. His lec- tures on Alaska have been repeated thirteen times in Hartford, Boston and elsewhere.

In 1884 Dr. Stone made a journey through the Yellowstone National Park, and what he saw there has been told in an interesting manner in the Hart- ford Post and in magazines. His letters from Europe to the New York Examiner, and his "Vaca- tion four in Alaska," which appeared in the same paper, attracted much attention. A recent series of letters in the Examiner, entitled "From Ocean to Ocean," giving liis observations on a tour across the continent, were also read with interest.

Perhaps Dr. Stone is as well known as an author in connection with his book "Public Uses of the Bible" as in any other way. This is a study of Biblical elocution, and was published as the result of the writer's experiences and discoveries, after many years of public reading of the Holy Scriptures. The book has been very favorably commented on, by eminent authorities, and is now used. as a text- book in some institutions of learning. Dr. Stone has delivered many very able sermons. Two of the most interesting, "Reason for Our Faith" and "The Historical Facts Expressed in Baptism," have been cordially received.

Atronomy is one of the sciences in which the Doctor is deeply interested, and an illustrated maga- zine article entitled "A Night at the Lick Observa- tory," has been read by many. "The Legend of Winona," from his pen, attracted very favorable mention, and "The White City," reprinted below, is considered a gem in its way, being perhaps the best thing written by him.

THE WHITE CITY.

The inland sea was shimmering in the light Of morn. Soft-veiled and mystically fair, Lake wand creations to enchanted sight, Turret and cope seemed hung in air.

The murmur and joy of people came At noon. Within the palaces they see Fabric and wheel, and art's wide fame, The parliament of man made free.

What genii wrought to form this glow At night ? The constellations of the sky Have rained their fiery orbs below, Relighting lamps that shone on high.

Dr. Stone has delivered many lectures and public addresses. One of the best of these was his Me- morial Day address before the Grand Army vet- erans, at the Foot Guard armory, several years ago. In 1896, when the Cleveland ( Ohio) delegation was entertained at Hartford, Dr. Stone delivered an address which was particularly pleasing. Dr. Stone is one of the board of trustees of the Connecticut Literary Institute, at Suffiedl ; he was president of the Pastors' Conference of Connecticut for two years, and is one of the trustees of the State Con- vention Board of Missions of the Baptist Church.

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In 1883 and 1884 he was chaplain of the Connecti- cut House of Representatives.

In 1861 Dr. Stone married Miss Abbie B. Seeley, daughter of Deacon Nathan Seeley of the Danbury Church. She belongs to the same family of which President Seeley of Smith College is a member. Mrs. Stone is one of three children, two of whom are living. Her brother, E. S. Seeley, is a partner in the firm of Taylor & Seeley, well-known hat manufacturers of New York. Her parents were members of the Baptist Church, in which the father was a deacon for many years, a very venerable man, who has always taken a very active part in church matters. Mrs. Stone's work outside of the church has been very. extensive. She is closely identified with numerous charitable, benevolent and missionary enterprises. She has been president of the McAll mission auxiliary in the city, and was for eighteen years secretary of the Women's Christian Association in Hartford, of which she is now vice- president.

Dr. and Mrs. Stone have one son, Wilbur M. Stone, who studied in a private school in Tarrytown, N. Y. After coming to Hartford he served an ap- prenticeship in the machine department of the Pratt & Whitney works, and then studied mechanical en- gineering. He also spent one year at Stevens In- stitute, Hoboken, N. J. He is now holding a re- sponsible position with F. H. Richards, of New York, as a mechanical engineer. He married (first) Miss Carrie Watson, who died shortly after marriage. For his second wife he wedded Lillian Newton, of Hartford, by whom he has three children : Malcolm, Pauline and Kenneth.

Dr. Stone is one of the members of the Board of Trustees of the New York Ministers' Home, repre- senting the State of Connecticut on this board. He has delivered a great number of addresses before dif- ferent associations upon a large variety of subjects. For many years he has been closely identified with Bible reading throughout this State.

That Dr. Stone fills a very large place in the city is evident. Perhaps no better estimate of his char- acter and usefulness may be had, than that pub- lished in the New York Herald some time ago. It said in part : "His counsel is generally sought in all local and State moral and educational and religious work, and he is ever at the front in all movements for the good of men, holding positions in all the important State boards of the denomination. In the pulpit he is a forceful preacher, and his utter- ances are marked by the sweetness of spirit, the breadth of view, of one who loves his fellow men."

SILAS CHAPMAN (deceased), who for many years held a leading place among the merchants of Hartford, was born in that city June 28, 1815, son of Silas and Betsey Crosby ( Murphy ) Chapman.

During his early life Mr. Chapman made his home in the family of J. W. Dimock, with whom he learned the details of the merchant tailor's business.

On Jan. 1, 1837, he bought a half-interest in Mr. Dimock's business, but the partnership was dis- solved in 1843, and on Jan. 1, 1844, he became as- sociated with E. W. Williams, under the firm name of Chapman & Williams. They dissolved partner- ship on Jan. 1, 1848, and at the close of that year the following paragraph was recorded in Mr. Chap- man's note book : "The year 1848 was the first year I did business alone and under my own manage- inent, and the profits resulting show pretty conclu- sively that the ship of co-partnership has been to me for eleven years past a profitless bark to sail in." Mr. Chapman's taste and skill in his business ren- dered his establishment one of the most popular of its kind in the city among fashionable young men of that day. In 1854 a pulmonary attack accom- panied by hemorrhage came near proving fatal, and compelled him to abandon his business, which was bought by William H. Kelsey. After his recovery he became secretary of the board of water commis- sioners, and proved an active, excellent and useful officer. His urbanity and cheerfulness made his company pleasant, while his known integrity gave him the confidence of all classes of citizens. Mr. Chapman was for nearly forty years a leading member of the First Baptist Church, and his death, Nov. 14, 1876, was a great loss to the society.

On Jan. 3, 1838, Mr. Chapman married Maria F., daughter of Edwin and Octavia (Clark) Pitkin. She was born Dec. 14, 1815, and died July 7, 1893, leaving one son, Silas Chapman, Jr.

SILAS CHAPMAN, JR., was born in Hartford Sept. 2, 1845, and is the third in direct line of descent to bear the name. He completed a course in the Hartford High School, and in 1863 began his busi- ness career as an office boy with the North American Fire Insurance Co. In 1868 he was appointed local agent at Hartford for the Firemen's Fund Insurance Co., of San Francisco, and when the North Ameri- can was closed out, in 1871, he had a fair agency business established. It was largely through his efforts that so much of the stock of the Firemen's Fund (some $200,000) was placed in Hartford. In the fall of 1892 Mr. Chapman purchased the agency business of B. R. Allen, which included the agency of the Hartford and the Royal Insurance Companies. For many years he occupied offices in the building on the corner of Asylum and Trum- bull streets, where the office of the North American was located, but about thirteen years ago he took the north basement office in the Hartford Fire In- surance Co.'s building, and in 1892 he removed to the south basement, which was formerly occupied by Mr. Allen. Mr. Chapman is a gentleman of culture and refined taste, and has traveled exten- sively in this country and elsewhere. He is promi- nent in Masonic circles, having attained the thirty- third degree in Scottish Rite Masonry. He is a member of Washington Commandery, K. T., and master of Hartford Council, Princes of Jerusalem. He is also active in religious work, has been clerk of

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the First Baptist Society in Hartford since 1873, and was librarian for twenty years in the Sunday- school. Being an ardent disciple of old Izaak Walton, he has been a regular visitor in the Rangley Lake region for many seasons, and where, with a company of chosen friends in his favorite pastime, he is one of the most companionable of men. In business he is reticent, clear-headed and penetrating to the last detail, and his selection by President Chase of the Hartford for the most influential agency in the company is an expression of confidence of the highest value. Mr. Chapman is a director in the Charter Oak National Bank of Hartford; the Billings & Spencer Co., one of the largest manu- facturing concerns in Hartford; the Middlesex County Mutual Fire Insurance Co., and several other manufacturing corporations.

The Pitkin family, which is of Puritan stock, has been represented in every generation in this country by able and upright men. In this line Silas Chapman, Jr., traces his descent as follows : Edwin Pitkin, his maternal grandfather, was for nearly forty years superintendent of the harness and saddlery business of Smith & Bourne, Hartford.

Col. John Pitkin, his great-great-grandfather, led his command against Crown Point in 1755. He was an incorporator of the town of East Hartford in 1785, and deacon of the Third Church of Hartford from 1752 to 1790.

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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 87

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