Commemorative biographical record of Middlesex County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Part 112

Author: Beers (J.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago : Beers
Number of Pages: 1502

USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > Commemorative biographical record of Middlesex County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 112

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Sylvester Chester Dunham married Mrs. Lucy (Cole) Phelps, sister of Mary Cole, who married Asa Dunham. Both were daughters of Moses Cole, who lived in East Hampton, where Frederick H. Dunham now; lives. Syl- vester Chester Dunham died in Marlboro De- cember 29, 1862. His grandson, Henry C. Dunham, is now living in Middletown, Conn., and his granddaughter, Mrs. Mary E. C. Brew- ster, sister of Henry C., resides in Brooklyn, N. Y., at No. 442 Putnam avenue.

Anna Dunham married Asahel Post, who died January 13, 1839. She died in Bay City, Mich., about 1875. Her granddaughter, Mrs. Esther Lewis, lives in Stafford Springs, Conn.

Betsey Dunham died in Marlboro, Janu- ary 10, 1879, unmarried. By occupation she was a tailoress, and she resided in Glaston- bury and Marlboro.

Orin Dunham died in Chatham, in Septem- ber, 1879.

Asa Dunham, grandfather of Frederick H., married, in Chatham, Mary Cole, a native of Chatham, and sister of Mrs. Lucy Cole ( Phelps). who mar- ried his brother, Sylvester Chester. Their children were: Asa Clark, born August 1.3. 1821. married Nancy Warner; he was a farm- er, and passed all his life in Marlboro. Henry Miles, born January 14. 1824. is mentioned below. Lewis Edwin, born November 19. 1825. is mentioned below. Moses Cole, born July 12, 1820, died in young manhood. James Everett, born October 24. 1831, died in Marl-

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boro, unmarried. Lewis Edwin, the only one now living, graduated from the Methodist Biblical Institute, Concord, N. H., (now the theological department of Boston University) in 1853, and in April 1854, joined what is now the New England Southern Conference, of which he is at present a superannuated mem- ber. His work was principally in southern Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut. He went to Providence in 1872. On March 22, 1855, he married Miss Lucy Mayhew. Look, of West Tisbury, Mass., who died October 14, 1901, and was buried in her native place. They had one daughter, Julia A.

Asa Dunham, the grandfather, was born in Glastonbury, Conn., and resided there until after his marriage, removing then to Marlboro, Conn., in the northern part of the town, where he became a large landholder, extensive farmer and stock grower, and was in affluent circum- stances. Mr. Dunham also dealt quite consid- erably in lumber, and had a number of men in his employ, his business requiring him to furnish a large amount of timber to New York, which he had hauled to Middle Had- dam, and sent from there by boat to its destin- ation. Mr. Dunham was a Democrat in poli- tics, although he accepted no political office. He died in November, 1864, at the age of near- ly seventy-five years, and was buried at Marl- boro Center. His wife survived more than a year, dying in February, 1866, at the age of eighty.

Henry Miles Dunham was born January 14, 1824, in Marlboro, in a house which still stands. Until he was sixteen years of age he attended the district schools, coming at the age of twelve into Chatham, but later went back to the farm, and remained there up to the age of twenty-three. At this time he went to live with his aunt, Esther Cole, who then resided upon the farm in Chatham which Fred- erick H. Dunham now occupies. He remained with her during her life, inherited her proper- ty, and remained upon it as long as he lived. Mr. Dunham engaged in general farming and also did a large lumber business. His death re- sulted from| a fall which injured his spine and he lived but one week after the accident, dying July 28, 1893, on his farm in Chatham, where he was buried.

Mr. Dunham was a prominent member of the Democratic party, and represented Chat- ham in the Legislature of 1857, and also in

1874. He was a member of the board of selectmen during the Civil war, also held the office of assessor for several terms, and served as deputy sheriff under Colonel Lewis of Es- sex. In addition he was very active in the religious affairs of the town. For many years he was a leading member of the Congregation- al Church, and, with time, personal attention and liberal hand, assisted in the building of the Congregational Church in Chatham, which is now used by the Swedish Lutheran congrega- tion of East Hampton. Mr. Dunham was an excellent man of business, and at the time of his death was very generally regarded as one of the most substantial citizens of the town.

Henry 'M. Dunham was married, April 18, 1849, to Miss Tirzah M. Hale, born November 5, 1826, in Glastonbury, Conn., daughter of George and Ann (Risley) Hale, the former of whom died in 1847, aged forty-four years, and the latter in 1895 aged ninety-one years. George Hale was a farmer, and resided in North Glastonbury. The following .children were born to Henry M. Dunham and wife: Frederick Hale, September 9, 1850; Alfred Henry, August 23, 1853; and Arthur Cole, December 6, 1855 (died January 19, 1879). Of these, Alfred H. was for two years em- ployed as a dry goods salesman in Hartford, later was in the decorating house of Platt & Thompson, in New Haven, for two years, and was one of the first men to locate at Cape Nome, Alaska, where he is conducting a very. successful drug business.

Frederick H. Dunham, the subject. proper of this review, was born at his present: home. Five years of his boyhood were spent in at- tendance at the district schools, and a period in the high school of East Hampton. Until 1875 he remained on the home farm, and then became engaged in the meat business, in asso- ciation with Le Grand Carpenter, of East. Hampton, under the firm style of Carpenter & Dunham, the business continuing thus for five years, when, upon the retirement of Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Dunham assumed sole control. During the succeeding ten years he carried on the business very successfully, giving his per- sonal supervision to its details, even to the slaughtering of the beeves, which he bought in New York. In 1890 Mr. Dunham dis- posed of this business and assumed the management of the home farm, and since that time has been closely iden-

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tified with general farming, stock raising, stock dealing, and the getting out of railroad timber. The fine property owned by Mr. Dun- ham comprises 800 acres, the land lying in the towns of Chatham, Marlboro, Glastonbury and Portland.

Mr. Dunham has been one of the active Democrats of his locality, and has been called upon to serve in many important positions, most acceptably on the board of selectmen for many years, and since 1898 he has been fill- ing the honorable position of first selectman. His financial ability has been of use on the board, and since his first term as one of its members the town debt has been reduced $50,- 000. In 1878 his fellow-citizens showed their appreciation of his services and character by electing him to the State Legislature, as colleague of Hubert Carpenter, and while there he served faithfully and efficiently on the com- mittee on Constitutional Amendments. In 1891 Mr. Dunham was again honored, and during that term was a colleague of William H. Bevin, and served acceptably on the com- mittee on Roads and Bridges. Mr. Dunham is highly esteemed by members of both polit- ical parties, and, while he is known to be strong in his partisanship, and never swerving in his loyalty to his friends, he also possesses the courage of his convictions, and never fears to follow where they lead.

On October 16, 1878, Mr. Dunham was married to Miss Sarah A. Day, born in 1850, in Portland, Conn., daughter of Isaac Day. She died March 5, 1890, and her only child, Arthur, died in infancy. On December 20, 1893, in Middle Haddam, Mr. Dunham was married to Miss Harriet L. Hall, born May 23, 1871, daughter of Nathan R., and Emma ( Parker) Hall. The children of this marriage are: Esther, born May 31, 1895, and Howard, October 10, 1898.

Fraternally Mir. Dunham is connected with Anchor Lodge, No. 112, A. F. & A. M., and Bellville Chapter, No. 46, O. E. S., at East Hampton, of which latter Mrs. Dunham is also a member. Mr. Dimham is a member of the Congregational Church, at East Hampton, while Mrs. Dunham belongs to the Episcopal Church at Middle Haddam

COLE FAMILY. Moses Cole, great- great-grandfather of Frederick H. Dunham, came to Chatham, Conn., from Cape Cod, and settled in the northern part of the town, where

he built a log house a short distance north of the present residence of Mr. Dunham. He was married prior to his removal from Cape Cod.

Moses Cole (2), son of Moses, married Mary Clark, of Chatham, and always resided upon the farm on which his father settled; there his last days were spent. A large tract of land came under his ownership, on the west side of Lake Pocatapaug, south of Mr. Dun- ham's present farm, consisting of a tract about two miles long and one mile wide. In 1794 he erected the present substantial home, now the property of Frederick H. Dunham. He was known as a man of probity and Christian character. His children were : Solomon, married (first) a Miss Porter, and (second) Mary Hale; he was a cabinet maker by trade ; he removed to Glastonbury, where he lived to be almost 100 years of age, and left a large farm in that vicinity. Eunice, wife of Lot Hudson, died at the age of nineteen years. James, who was a cooper by trade, died un- married, in middle life, on the old homestead, in Chatham. Esther died unmarried, on the old homestead. Lucy married Sylvester. C. Dunham, and died in Marlboro. Rachel mar- ried John Isham, a large cloth manufacturer, of Canaan, Conn., where they lived and died. Mary married Asa Dunham, and they were the grand-parents of Frederick Hale Dunham, of Chatham. Nathan married a Miss Curtis and moved to the State of New York, where a branch of the family is located.

Frederick H. Dunham possesses an ances- cestry of which he may well be proud, the rec- ords telling of honest, industrious lives, given to the betterment of the communities in which they lived, and establishing a name which re- flects credit upon those who have a right to bear it.

CHARLES A. KIRTLAND, owner and publisher of the Deep River New Era, is one of the well-known men of Middlesex county. Ile was born in Old Saybrook, June 14, 1855. son of the late Hon. Ozias H. Kirtland. His edi- cation was derived from the public schools and the Seabury Institute, the latter in its day a prominent educational institution for boys. His first introduction to the cares and busi- ness of life began when he was only sixteen years of age, at which time he began carrying the mails between the railroad station and the

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post office in Old Saybrook. At the same time he was employed about the lumber yard of Kirtland & Clark, of which firm his father was a member.

Young Kirtland was a youth of large phys- ique, great strength, and was utterly fearless. Recognizing these qualities, together with the ability for the successful handling of men, John I. Hutchinson, then high sheriff of Mid- dlesex county, appointed him as deputy. After serving in that capacity two years he re- signed to accept the position of mail agent be- tween Saybrook Point and Springfield, Mass. This was only a few years after the building of the Hartford & Connecticut Valley railroad and in order to complete his run it was nec- essary to change cars at Hartford and run from that city to Springfield by the Connecti- cut Central railway. Later, owing to the great increase of mail on the Valley road his run run was shortened to extend only between Say- brook and Hartford. While mail agent Mr. Kirtland instituted a number of changes for facilitating the handling of mail, both in the car, and in post offices along the houte, sub- ject, of course, to the approval of the govern- ment, and he takes much satisfaction in the knowledge that many of the same methods are in use in the postal department to-day.

In 1885, when President Cleveland as- sumed office, Mr. Kirtland, knowing that he was liable to have a successor, owing to a change of administration, resigned, and in the same year purchased The New Era, founded in 1874, by Francis Sheldon. The paper was then in a languishing condition, the proprietor having been dead a year or two, and the busi- ness being without a responsible head. M.r. Kirtland brought to it active management, a large personal following and business acumen. Ever ready to advance rather than to stand still, and bearing in mind the fact that im- provement meant increased receipts, he added by these means largely to the circulation of his paper and to its advertising patronage. Its influence is to-day a factor in the affairs of lower Middlesex county.

Upon the election of Benjamin Harrison to the presidency Mr. Kirtland was re-appoint- ed mail agent, serving only a year, after which he received the appointment of postmaster of Deep River. During his administration of four years the office was permanently located

in the present town building and its fitting and appointments made according to his ideas. It is said to be the best office in any country town in the State.

In the fall of 1893 Mr. Kirtland established The Connecticut Eastern Newes, a weekly newspaper in Niantic, but after two years sold it, the new owner merging it into the Sound Breese, in Old Lyme. In the spring of the following year he began the publication of the Shore Recorder, at Clinton, and this he also sold. In April, 1900, the Middletown Tribune Company was organized and Mr. Kirtland was chosen president. The company. continued the publication of the Tribune, a daily paper, for a number of months, and then leased the plant. Mr. Kirtland is still presi- dent of the company.

M1. Kirtland married Mary E. M. Ingham, of Old Saybrook. Three children have been born to them, one of whom died in infancy. Those living are Ethel, wife of Robert Rankin ; and Marion, a school teacher. Both reside in Deep River, the latter with her parents. Mr. Kirtland has many friends and is stanch and true in his friendships. He has seen much of po- litical life in his section of the State, and is and always has been an ardent Republican. In his fraternal relations he is a member of Trini- ty Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Webb Lodge, I. O. O. F., and of Unity Grange, P. of H .; and he is a vice-president of the Connecticut Editorial Association.

CHARLES O. STONE, one of the lead- ing contractors and builders of Middletown, Conn., is a well-known business man of Mid- dlesex county. His work is characterized by thoroughness and integrity throughout, and it has become the measure of excellence in that line.

(I) The Stone Family was early planted in New England. William Stone, born in 1608, came to America in 1639, in Rev. Henry Whit- field's company, which also included Gov- ernor Leete, and he settled in Guilford. He was the eighth signer of the Plantation Cov- enant. His death occurred in 1683. His wife's name was Hannah.

(II) Benajah Stone, son of William and Hannah, was born in 1649, and married Hes- tor Kirby. He died in 1738.

(III) Benajah Stone (2), son of Bena-

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jah, was born in Guilford, and there married Hannah de Wolfe. His death occurred in 1714.

(IV) Benajah Stone (3), son of Benajah. (2), was born in 1708. He moved from the family home in Guilford, and made New Mil- ford his place of residence. His wife was Mary Chittenden.

(V) Capt. Benjamin Stone, son of Bena- jah (3), was born in 1739, and died at his home in New Milford in 1830. He is said to have been a powerful man physically. He was a soldier in the French and Indian war in 1760, and was a captain in the Revolutionary war. It is said he enlisted the greater part of the men who went from New Milford. He married Amy Tolles, who was born in 1739, and died in 1804.

(VI) Joel Stone, son of Capt. Benjamin was born in 1775, and followed farming and shoemaking. His death occurred in 1860. His wife, Chloe Brown, was born in 1776, and died in 1866.

(VII) Russell Stone, son of Joel, was born in 1801, and engaged in farming in western Connecticut. In 1844 he removed to New Milford, where he died in 1881, at the age of eighty years. He married Laura A. Hal- lock, who was born in 1810, and who died in 1889. Their children were as follows: Earl, of Milton, N. Y., Charles O ..; Frances, who married Charles Edmunds, and died at the age of twenty-six; Richard, who carries on the

old home farm in New Milford; Miss Harriet, who resides with Richard; and Don Alonzo, who died when fifteen years old. The father was a Democrat, and a faithful citizen. He belonged to the Baptist Church, and took a deep interest in its prosperity.

! (VIII) Charles O. Stone, son of Russell and the subject of this sketch, was born in Washington, Conn., February 7, 1840, and in 1862 located in Middletown. His school priv- ileges were limited as he attended school but the three winter months of each year until he was eighteen. At that age he left home to learn the carpenter's trade, under the instruction of B. P. Beach, of Washington. For each of the three years which he devoted to his apprentice- ship he received respectively $30, $35 and $40. He was a careful and thorough workman, and after his trade was learned, he worked as a journeyman in Newt Milford until he moved to Durham, where he built a house for Henry

E. Nettleton. It was not until 1876 that Mr. Stone began business for himself and entered upon that building and contracting career that has been both profitable and creditable to him. He did his first work as an independent con- tractor and builder when he erected a house for Prof. Calvin Harrington, in Middletown. Among the principal buildings he has con- structed since that time may be mentioned the Y. M. C. A. Building, the Middlesex Bank- ing Company's Building, the South Church parsonage, the Methodist Episcopal Church.7 the Psi Upsilon and Eclectic Club Houses, the Fayerweather Gymnasium, and the resi- dence of E. K. Hubbard. He also constructed the six-story addition to the store of J. H .. Bunce, and had to do with much construction not here mentioned.

On November 29. 1866, Mr. Stone was united in marriage with Rose C. Nettleton. who was born in Durham August 15. 1840, a daughter of Henry E. and Cornelia (Camp). Nettleton. (See sketch elsewhere.) Mrs. Stone attended the Durham schools until she was twelve years old, and also attended the New Britain Normal School. At the early age of fifteen, she began teaching in North Guil- ford, and "boarded round." During her ten years of experience as a teacher she taught in North Guilford, New Milford, and Dur- ham, Conn. Children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stone as follows: (1) Frances L., born December 19, 1868, died July 1. 1872. (2) Clifton I., born March 12, 1871, lives in Southington, Conn .; he married Cornelia G. Frost, and has two children, Marion Cornelia. and Dorothy Q. (3) Berkley C., born January 14, 1873, graduated from the Middletown high school in the class of 1890, and is now in busi- ness with his father. In April 1895, he mar- ried Florence F. Fairchild, who died January 26, 1897. They had one child, Amy Florence, born in March, 1896. On October 1, 1900, he married Annie Bragdon, and to this marriage a son, Charles Bragdon, was born July 1. 1901. (4) Cornelia H., born February 1. 1875, graduated from the Middletown high school in the class of 1803. and from Wesleyan Univer- sity in the class of 1807; she is a teacher at Chelsea, Mass., and has charge of the Bio- logical department in the High School. (5) Harry R., born August 10, 1878, was gradu- ated from Wesleyan University in 1809, and is now a medical student at Johns Hopkins

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

University. Mr. Charles O. Stone is a Demo- crat, and after serving in the common council two years, declined a re-election. He has been an Odd Fellow since 1874, and is also a mem- ber of the Red Men and the A. O. U. W.

Through his grandmother, Mrs. Chloe (Brown) Stone, Charles O. Stone's ancestral line is traced to John Tilley and wife, who came to America in the "Mayflower" in 1620. They were accompanied by their daughter, Elizabeth, who was born in 1607. Both John Tilley and his wife died in the winter of 1620-21. John Tilley was the sixteenth signer of the Mayflower Compact. As he and his wife both died during that first dreadful win- ter, their little daughter, then but thirteen years of age, became a member of Governor Carver's family. It is supposed that she was Gov. Carver's granddaughter, and "The Old Hartford Bible" has a record to that effect, but there is no positive proof. Another mem- ber of the Governor's family was John How- land, who was born in 1592, and who was the thirteenth signer of the Compact. When the Governor and his wife had both passed away, John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley were wedded, probably in 1621 or 1623. They became the parents of ten children, four sons and six daughters, among whom was Lydia, who married James Brown. John How- land was one of the leading men in the colony, and "he died at Rocky Nook, Kingston, 1672, when he had reached four score years." Eliza- beth (Tilley) Howland passed the years of her widowhood with her daughter, Lydia Brown, and died and was buried from the Brown home in Swanzey. Her will is given in full, in which she mentions her grand- children, James, Jabez and Dorothy Brown, and appoints her son, Jabez Howland, and son-in-law, James Brown, her executors.

The first of the Brown family in America was "John Brown, who was born in 1583, and who died in 1662. He was Assistant Governor from (1635 to 1653, Commissioner to the United Colonies 1644 to 1656, and a member of the Council of War 1642 to 1646." [From List of Ancestors in General Society of Co- lonial Wars.] The old records tell of him, as follows, spelling the name with the final "e," Mr. John Brown; "a London merchant;" "an English shipwright;" "became acquainted with the Pilgrims at Leyden, prior to 1620." "In 1633-34, when aged about 50, he, with his

wife Dorothy, & children, Mary, John & James, came to Plymouth." "In 1640 he, with Miles Standish, appointed the boundaries of Taun- ton; in 1645 he became a large proprietor of lands in Rehoboth." "In 1635 elected one of the Governor's Assistants & continued on that Board for 17 years." "In 1644 he was ap- pointed one of the Commissioners of the United Colonies & served in that capacity until 1655- 56 when he went to England to take care of Sir Henry Vane's estates, which were in dan- ger of being confiscated by Cromwell, & re- mained there until near the time of the King's restoration when he deemed it prudent to with- draw. He returned to Rehoboth & died there, April 10, 1662." "He was on terms of friend- ship with Roger Williams, & the banished Gor- ton, & others who suffered persecution in that intolerant age. He 'scrupled the right of co- ercing any person to support the ministry.' There was scarcely any other man either in Plymouth or 'Massachusetts who could with impunity have expressed a doubt on the sub- ject. He acted on his principles & bound him- self for 7 years to pay from his own property all that his fellow townsmen should fail to make up by their voluntary contributions. This grand old man was then, in 1655, past his three score years and ten." "Mrs. Dorothy Brown, wife of John Brown, Sen., deceased the 27th day of Jan., 1673, being the ninety & eighth year of her age, or thereabouts, & was buryed uppon the 29th of Jan. 1673." [Book A, p. 143, Swanzey Records.] "The memory of this Colonial Dame is perpetuated in Swanzey by the Dorothy Brown Rebekah Degree Lodge 122 I. O. O. F." She was the ancestress, through her daughter Mary Willett, of that Dorothy (Quincey), Oliver Wendell Holmes' great-grandmother, of whom he wrote: "Here we are, Edwards and Doro- thys, all your own." Mary Brown, daughter of John and Dorothy, married, 1636, Thom- as Willett, the first mayor of New York City. The Willett tombstones are pictured in many books. The foot-stone at Mrs. Willett's grave bears this record: "Daughter of the Worship- ful Mr. John Browne, deceased." She died in 1669; and "was buried in the usual burial place by her Father & other Relatives upon a little hill in Swanzey, being in their own land" (Long known as the "Brown Burial Ground").

(II) James Brown, son of John and Dorothy, "was also an Assistant, being chosen

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

to that office 13 years, although he was a prominent Baptist, & for that offense, paid a fine of 5 pounds & moved away as far as his possessions would allow to Swanzey [now Barrington, R. I.] where, in 1710, he closed his honored life." He went to King Philip three times "in order to persuade him to peace." The last time the younger Indians would have killed him, but Philip prevented them because "his father ( Massasoit) had al- ways told him to be kind to Mr. Browne." James Brown married Lydia, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland, Pilgrims of the "Mayflower." They had three children, James, Jabez and Dorothy.

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Commemorative biographical record of Middlesex County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Part 112

Author: Beers (J.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago : Beers Number of Pages: 1502

Author: Beers (J.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago : Beers
Number of Pages: 1502