Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 2, Part 163

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1172

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 2 > Part 163

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Merton S. Buckland began his education in the East District school. The family afterward resided a short time in Hamden, Conn., and Catskill, N. Y., and on his return to West Hartford Center our subject attended the old academy for a time. He began his business career as a clerk in his father's store and the postoffice, continuing thus until his father's death, when he was appointed postmaster by Postmaster-General Bissell, and has since filled that office to the entire satisfaction of the general

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public. He was messenger in the State Legislature in 1888-89.

On Sept. 2, 1874, Mr. Buckland was united in marriage with Miss Addie E. Emmons, a daughter of Noadiah F. and Amelia (Goodman) Emmons, and to this union has been born one son, Frank M., who is a graduate of Harvard College, class of 1900. Mr. Buckland is a prominent Mason, and has, since 1870, been a member of Wyllys Lodge, No. 99, F. & A. M., of which he is now past mas- ter; he is a member of Pythagoras Chapter, No. 17, R. A. M .; Wolcott Council, No. I, R. & S. M .; Washington Commandery, No. I, K. T .; and Sphinx Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S .; and is also a member of the Veterans Association. As a citizen he has at all times the good of the community at heart, and his abilities are exerted to make his town and county rank among the best in the State.

SAMUEL MILLS CAPRON. In the death of Samuel Mills Capron, principal of the Hartford Public High School, at his home in Hartford, Jan. 4, 1874, there was closed a career of remarkable usefulness.

Mr. Capron was born May 15, 1832, in Ux- bridge, Mass., son of William Cargill and Chloe (Day) Capron, both natives of that town, and de- scendants of an early New England ancestry. The son received his preparation for college in the Phil- lips Academy at Andover, Mass., then in charge of the late Dr. D. S. Taylor. Later he entered Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1853, in the same class with Andrew D. White, afterward president of Cornell University: Hon. Wayne Mc Veagh, of Pennsylvania ; E. C. Stedman, the poet : and the late Hon. Henry C. Robinson, of Hartford. After his graduation Mr. Capron came to Hartford and was given the management of the Hopkins Grammar School, which then embraced the classical department of the High School. His brother, William B. Capron, had been principal of the latter for about six years. In 1863 Mr. Capron went abroad for a year or more of travel and study. Rettirning to Hartford in the spring of 1865. he was made principal of the Hartford Public High School, in addition to the Hopkins Grammar School, a position he held most efficiently until the time of his death. His whole life was given to the people of Hartford, in the cause of education, and in the profession he was eminently successful. In his po- sition of instructor in the classical languages Mr. Capron had all the scholars who were fitting for college under his charge for at least one year, and his excellence as a teacher has been reflected in the very creditable position that numbers of them have taken in the various callings of life. Pupils who came tinder his instruction received the full benefit of his ripe scholarship, and felt the inspiring in- fluence of his own interest in the work. Graduates and scholars alike were ready to profess a peculiar respect and affection for him. The year after he was placed in charge of the school the graduates

were three in number; in 1873 they were forty- four. From 1853 to 1874 there were in all 408 graduates from the school, and probably more than five times as many scholars. Under Mr. Capron's careful supervision the reputation of the institution increased until at the time of his death none stood higher among the preparatory schools of the coun- try, and at Yale College it was almost invariably the case that among the best scholars of each class were to be found representatives of this school.

Margaret A. Blythe thus wrote of Mr. Capron as "The Man and the Teacher :"

No one can write of Mr. Capron without fearing that his words will be read like an ideal sketch of the perfect man. Of all the men whose lives were ever written, this is he whom his biographer would least desire to overpraise. Living, he loved the truth, and shunned applause: the voice would be unfriendly that would affront his ashes with a eulogy misplaced. Yet words truly spoken of him, let them be guarded how they may, will seem to praise him out of reason. Nor can one action of his life be named-far less can the sum of his work be reckoned- unless one should speak of that matchless character which his friends would gladly leave to be its own remembrancer ; for what he did was the result of what he was; and what he was was still the measure of what he could do. It is not always so. Many a time the teacher, the poet, the preacher, is greater than the man; but he who surpassed other men in so much was above them not least in this, that he was more real in all his qualities than they. His teaching was himself. He was not a teacher of genius. if by genius is meant a development of one faculty at the expense of others. He was great as the head of a school through the same qualities that would have made him great anywhere else. If he had been in business, he would have understood that business so much better than any one else that he would speedily have become necessary to it. If he had been the colonel of a regiment, he would have been deeply feared, passionately loved, and intrepidly followed by his men. If he had been a prime minister, he would have been the mild unconscious autocrat of his cabinet.

Those who most valued Mr. Capron wondered some- times what it was in him that inspired his scholars with so deep a respect for his abilities. It was not scholar- ship, for the great mass of them never met him in the class-room. His addresses to the school were remarka- ble only for their directness and simplicity .. It would not be an impression filtering down through the Senior class, always a small and exclusive body. Yet the least and last urchin of the fourth class would speak of him with awe as a "smart man." So far as this estimate is to be ascribed to any one quality in him, it was, doubtless, due to his extraordinary executive faculty. In all the daily exigen- cies of the school, the thousand and one questions. involv- ing a host of conflicting interests and remote considera- tions, all endlessly complicated with each other, which came up for the principal's decision, he was never at fault, never flurried, never uncertain.

To all who lived and labored with him, Mr. Capron was a power, a succor and an inspiration. There were those to whom he was something more. No one can fully understand his relations with his teachers who does not know what he became to some of them, when out of long companionship and unbroken faith a cloudless friendship dawned, and in its sunshine the secret sweetness of his na- ture unfolded leaf by leaf.

These are words, too vain and vague to express the power and meaning of his life. If from his upper sphere one born of a nobler race came down and clasped us, held us a little while in converse, and departed, could we more describe him than to say of his face that it was fair, and of his voice that it was lovely? Only the speech of the

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immortals can rightly syllable immortal beauty. That in our friend which was but common and earthly, we may reveal; his diviner part eludes our praise.

In November, 1854, Mr. Capron was married to Miss Eunice M. Chapin, and five children blessed the union, two of whom-Helen Maria and Alice Louise-are now deceased ; the others are Clara Day, Bertha Chapin and William Cargill. Mrs. Capron survives. Mr. Capron was a deacon in the Asylum Hill Congregational Church.

TERRY. The Terry family, of Enfield, several members of which came to Hartford and were con- spicuous characters through the first half of the century just closed, among whom were Eliphalet, Roderick, Seth and Gen. Nathaniel Terry, the lat- ter a cousin of the three brothers previously named, was one of the many early New England fam- ilies of character and force. The gentlemen named were descended in the fifth generation from (I) Samuel Terry, of Springfield, Mass., where he ap- pears first about 1654, who in about 1700 removed to Enfield, Conn. He married (first), in 1660, Ann Lobdell.

From this ancestor the Hartford Terrys' line of descent is through Samuel (2), Ephraim, Judge Eliphalet and Nathaniel (Gen. Nathaniel Terry be- ing a son of Nathaniel, and the three brothers- Eliphalet, Roderick and Seth-sons of Judge Eliphalet ).

(II) Samuel Terry (2), son of Samuel, born in 1661, married (second), in 1698, some time after the death of his first wife, Martha Credan. He lived in Enfield, and died in 1730 ; his wife Martha passed away in 1743.

(III) Ephraim Terry, son of Samuel (2), born in 1701, married, in 1723, Ann, born in 1702, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Collins and his wife Alice, daughter of Rev. William Adams, of Ded- ham, Mass. Ephraim Terry also lived in Enfield, where he died in 1783.

(IV) Judge Eliphalet Terry, son of Ephraim, born in 1742, married, in 1765, Mary Hall. Judge Terry was a man of prominence in his community, and represented Enfield in the State Legislature for thirty-three years, being a member at the time of his death, in 1812. His widow survived until 1833. Their children were: Esther, Simeon, Mary, Mabel, Eliphalet, Lucy, Seth, Abigail and Roderick.

(IV) Nathaniel Terry, son of Ephraim, and brother of Judge Eliphalet, born in 1730, lived and died in Enfield, his death occurring in 1792.

ELIPHALET TERRY, son of Judge Eliphalet, of Enfield, was born Dec. 25, 1776, in Enfield. He came to Hartford and entered the employ, in 1795, of a Mr. Church, in his store, located at the meet- ing of Main street and the Albany and Windsor roads. He remained in the service of his employer until the latter's death, when he assumed control of the business. He subsequently took his brother Roderick as a partner into the business with him, the firm becoming E. & R. Terry. The house of

this firm became the largest of all the Hartford concerns in the West India trade. Eliphalet Terry retired from the business in 1830, with a fortune. He was one of the original subscribers to the In- surance Co., in 1810, holding twenty shares. In 1835 he was chosen president of the company, an office he held through the remainder of his life, and through his wise conduct of the affairs of the company it prospered. Mr. Terry was active in establishing many of the benevolent and phil- anthropic institutions of Hartford. He was one of the moving forces and large contributors toward the establishment of Dr. Bushnell's Church, and his in- fluence was felt in social, political and religious circles.

Eliphalet Terry was twice married, wedding (first), June 18, 1811, Sally Watson, and (second) Lydia Cost. Mr. Terry died June 5, 1849.

RODERICK TERRY, son of Judge Eliphalet, and brother and business partner of Eliphalet Terry, was born March 2, 1788, in Enfield. He joined his brother in business in Hartford, as set forth in the foregoing, prospered, and was successful. For years their store was one of the landmarks of Hartford. The business of the original house of E. & R. Terry eventually became that of the Keney Brothers, known under the firm name of H. & W. Keney, and at the time of their deaths was the oldest in Hartford. In after years, and subsequent to the retirement of Eliphalet Terry, Roderick changed his business location to State street, where he was engaged in the line of hardware. He was a promi- nent and influential citizen. He was one of the first board of directors of the Exchange Bank, and its first president and only one until his death ( 1834 to 1849). He was a member of the common coun- cil of the city, and an alderman for several years, and at one time represented the city in the State Legislature. He was one of the directors of the Retreat for the Insane, and a director of the Hart- ford & New Haven Railroad Co. He was an active member of the old North Church, and for many years chairman of the church committee.

Roderick Terry was twice married, (first) to Harriet, daughter of Rev. John Taylor, and (sec- ond) to Lucy. daughter of Dwight Ripley. Mr. Terry died Feb. 9, 1819.

GEN. NATHANIEL TERRY, of Hartford, son of Nathaniel, of Enfield, was born in that town Jan. 20, 1768. He was graduated from Yale College in 1786, became a law student of Hon. Jesse Root, and was admitted to the Bar in 1790. His profes- sional life covered the period from 1796 to 1844. He practiced first in England, then removed to Hart- ford : was a representative from the latter place in the State Legislature for twelve sessions ; was judge of the county court from 1807 to 1809; a member of the XVth Congress from 1817 to 1819: and a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1818. Gen. Terry was also mayor of Hartford from 1824 to 1831. During the prolonged infancy of the Hart- ford Fire Insurance Co., from 1810 to 1835, Gen.

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Terry was its president, being succeeded in that incumbency by his cousin, Eliphalet Terry. From 1802 to 1813 lie commanded the Governor's Foot Guard of Hartford, manifesting in military display the keenest deliglit. Six feet four inches tall, erect and imperious, he appeared in uniform the born soldier. From 1819 to 1828 he was president of the Hartford Bank. He had little aptitude for the details of business, but he was a studious and thor- ough lawyer, devoted to his profession. He died at New Haven June 14, 1844, after a career of striking vicissitudes.

On March 14, 1798. Gen. Terry was married to Catherine, daughter of Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth.

SIMON WILLARD HOUGHTON, M. D. One of the most exacting of all the higher lines of occupation to which a man may lend his energies is that of the physician. A most scrupulous pre- liminary training is demanded, a nicety of judg- mient but little understood by the laity. Our sub- ject is well fitted for the profession which he has chosen as a life work, and his skill and ability have won hin a lucrative practice in and around Hazard- ville, where he is now located.

Dr. Houghton was born in Marlboro, Windham Co., Vt., Jan. 17, 1849, a son of Simon W. and Sarah Ann ( Mead) Houghton, whose married life extended over a period of fifty-eight years. The father, who was born in Lancaster, Mass., in 1812, is still (1899) living. He continued to make his honte in his native place until 1839, and then re- moved to Marlboro, Vt., where he conducted a blacksmith and machine shop for about ten years. In 1849 he removed to Putney, same State, where he lived forty-nine years, and in 1898 located in Brattleboro, Vt., where he now resides, an honored and highly respected old gentleman. He has in his possession the original deed given by the In- dians, in the name of John Ponto, representing the tribe, to John Houghton, the progenitor of the Houghton family in America ; it is dated in 1665. and given for land in Lancaster, Mass. The Doc- tor's paternal grandfather, Timothy Houghton, was born there in 1771, and was married Nov. 22. 1798, to Olive Moor, a daughter of Isaac and Mary Moor. He was a carpenter by trade, and spent his entire life in Lancaster, where his remains were interred.

Dr. Houghton was reared in Putney, Vt., and was provided with excellent educational advantages. He is a graduate of the Leland & Grey Seminary, Townshend, Vt. : and was prepared for college at the preparatory school in Westmoreland, N. H .; spent two years at Dartmouth College : and in 1872 entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, where he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1879. The sante spring he located at Somters, Conn., remaining there until March 14. 1890, when he came to Hazardville, where he has since been in the active and successful practice of liis profession.

(11 Jan. 17, 1882, Dr. Houghton married Miss

Minnie L., daughter of Frederick B. and Delia ( Blinn) Little. of Ellington, Conn., and they have one son, Earl. The Doctor is a member of the Congregational Church, in which his father has served as deacon since twenty years of age. Fra- ternally our subject is a Master Mason, and a mem- ber of the Foresters and the O. U. A. M. His political support is always given to the men and measures of the Republican party. He is a popular physician, and one of the most highly respected and esteemed citizens of the community in which he lives.

HON. CHARLES H. NORTHAM, whose cleath occurred Nov. 12, 1881, when he was at the advanced age of eighty-three years, was one of Hartford's very successful business men, an es- teemed citizen, and one of the city's great bene- factors.

Col. Northam was born in 1797, in the town of Colchester, Conn. He came to Hartford in 1812, as a clerk for Nathan Morgan, who was en- gaged in the grocery business, remaining and mak- ing his home with him for five years. At the ex- piration of this period young Northam engaged in the same line of business for himself for two years. Following this he became associated as a partner in business with his former employer, the firm doing a grocery business in connection with a West Indian trade. Some five years later the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Northam went into the shipping, forwarding and commission business with M. W. Chapin. This partnership lasted until 1832, from which time each continued in business separately. Mr. Chapin taking the Philadelphia packets, and Mr. Northam the New York and Richmond line. In 1843 Mr. Northam associated with him in business the late James Bolter, the firm becoming C. H. Northam & Co., and so continuing until 1860, when it was dis- solved. Two years later Col. Northam retired from business, and was chosen president of the Mercantile National Bank, a position he held with good judgment and ability until his death. Years ago he had been connected with the State banks of Hartford.

Col. Northam was prompt to see the advantages of steam navigation, and became president and treasurer of the old Connecticut River Steamboat Co., owning the boats "Oliver Ellsworth." "Bunker Hill." "New England." and others. By his ex- cellent business qualities, energy and force, he achieved great success in life, and became wealthy, and, not the least of all, he used much of his wealth for grand and noble purposes. He was interested in various corporations, was a director of the Phoenix Fire Insurance Co., the Broad Brook Co., the Connecticut Safe & Trust Deposit Co., and the Hartford & Wethersfield Railway Co. He was a director of the Cedar Hill Cemetery As- sociation, and also president of the Hartford Hos- pital. His religious faith was in the Episcopal

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Church, and for many years he was a vestryman and warden of Christ Church at Hartford. He later held membership in Trinity Church, of the same city, and was one of the board of education of church scholarship of the society.

In his early and later manhood Mr. Northam was actively interested and prominently connected with the State militia. About 1830 he was cap. tain of the Hartford Artillery Company, known as - the Third Company of the Second Regiment, First Brigade, of Connecticut militia; and in about 1835 he served the regiment as lieutenant- colonel, hence the title of Colonel he bore through life. He also figured somewhat in municipal and other public affairs, served as councilman in 1840, and as alderman in 1843 and again in 1850. In 1858 and 1860 he represented Hartford in the State Legislature.

The Northam Memorial Chapel and Northam Hall, at Trinity College, stand as monuments to the noble impulses and liberality of Col. Northam, who also added to his gift a legacy providing for the endowment of a professorship, and an addi- tional $75,000 to the general funds of the college. The sum total of his gifts, together with a legacy from his widow, does not fall far short of a quar- ter of a million of dollars. Mrs. Northam gave to the Hartford City Hospital $46,000. Col. Nor- tham made feasible, in 1881, the Old People's Home, an institution in connection with the Hart- ford Hospital, by a gift of $50,000, the Home be- ing opened in 1884. This, located on Jefferson street, is one of the noteworthy structures of the city. Mr. Northam was president of the Hos- pital from 1877 to 1881, the time of his death. He also gave liberally to the Hartford Library.

In 1828 Mr. Northam was married to Miss Susan Risley, of East Hartford, who survived him. They had no children of their own, but adopted as a daughter their niece, Louise Maria, who was born Sept. 1, 1828, and on Jan. 16, 1849, became the wife of William Henry Lee, of New York City. Mr. Lee was born May 19, 1818, in New Britain, Conn., and died April 9, 1895. He passed his closing years in Hartford. This union was blessed with children as follows: Charles N., Thomas G., William Henry, Grace, Frederick H., Robert Lincoln, and Louisa Maria.

WILLIAM HENRY WRIGHT (deceased), who at the time of his death was general super- intendent of the E. Ingraham Co.'s factories at Bristol, was a native of that town, born Feb. 24, 1861, of good old New England stock.

James Wright, the first of whom we have men- tion, was in all probability of English ancestry, al- though with some of the Wright family the impres- sion prevails that they are of Scottish descent. Nothing, however, can be found to substantiate that belief. The first mention of this James Wright is found in the Congregational Church records of Milford. He married Hannah Sanford, of that

place, and their children, according to one author- ity, were: James, baptized Sept. 29, 1700; Mar- gery, baptized Feb. 25, 1705; and Mary, baptized March 7, 1707. According to another authority the children were: Jonathan [place and date of birth unknown] ; James, born in Milford in 1700; Margery, born in Milford in 1705; Mary, born in Milford in 1707; Joseph, born in Durham Nov. 1, 1713; and Ebenezer, born in Durham in 1716. The mother of this family died in Durham March 11. 1716. By his second wife, Bethia, James Wright had children as follows, all born in Dur- .ham: Samuel, 1718; Daniel, 1723; Samuel, 1725; Hannah and Sarah (twins), 1727; and Abigail, 1729. In 1707 the boundary line was run between the towns of Guilford and Durham. The Guil- ford committee consisted of John Fowler, Daniel Evarts and Andrew Ward, while the Durham committee were Caleb Seward and James Wright.

Joseph Wright, Sr. (above), born Nov. 1, 1713, was baptized the day of his birth. He mar- ried Eleanor Seward, and names and dates of birth of their children are: Eleanor, 1740: Margery, 1742: Joseph, Jr., May 6, 1744; David, 1747; and Helen, 1754.

Joseph Wright, Jr., was born in Durham, and baptized the day of his birth. He was admitted to the church Sept. 21, 1766; took the oath of fidelity to the State of Connecticut Sept. 16, 1777, and was made a freeman the same day. He was twice married, (first ) in Durham, Dec. 17, 1767, to Mrs. Sarah Watrous, widow of Eber Watrous, of Durham, and a daughter of Timothy Bishop. She was born in Guilford, Conn., April 22, 1741, and died in Durham Jan. 5, 1776. For his sec- ond wife Joseph Wright, Jr., wedded Dec. 27, 1776, Anna Camp, of Durham. Children by first marriage: Sally, born Dec. 3, 1769; Ichabod, Feb. 27, 1773; and Luce, Dec. 21, 1775. Children by second marriage: Seymour, Sept. 27, 1779; Nan- cy, July 26, 1781 ; Eunice, Oct. 9, 1783; Harvey, May 20, 1786 ( see farther on) ; Israel Camp, Nov. 26, 1788; Elizur, Dec. 25, 1791 ; and Anna, Aug. 21, 1796.

Seymour Wright, great-grandfather of our subject, served as a private in the war of 1812, from Sept. 8 to Nov. 5, 1814. He married a lady named Tisdale, and had one son, William Tisdale.

William Tisdale Wright, grandfather of our subject, was a tinsmith by trade, his shop and residence being located on Main street, Bristol, where for many years he carried on a lucrative business. He died June 30, 1876, an earnest church worker and a model citizen. His children by his first wife, Catherine Maria (Gale), who was born in Wallingford, were: Henry D., who was killed at the battle of Irish Bend (his name is on the soldiers monument in West cemetery, Bristol) ; and Charles Gale, father of our subject. For his second wife William T. Wright wedded Patience Babbitt, who survived him; by this marriage there was no issue.

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Charles Gale Wright, born Dec. 6, 1836, was a tinsmith by trade, which he followed in Bristol, working for his father many years. He married Sarah F. Stone, of Farmington, Conn., and they have had children as follows : Nettie A., Mrs. Walter Austin, of Stamford, Conn .; William H., our sub ject : Ilarry C., of Bristol; Bernice M., Mrs. James McGinnis, of Bristol; Arthur T., of Bristol; and Louis W., of Hopedale, Massachusetts.

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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 2, Part 163

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1172

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1172