Commemorative biographical record of Middlesex County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Part 83

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 83

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men, and all with whom he had contact, espe- cially the men of large business affairs and con- nections with whom he came to have familiar acquaintance in the markets which he fre- quented as a buyer. He was throughout life active in all that made for the welfare of his town, and from early life was especially de- voted to the interests of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, in which for many years he held the most important official positions, and was probably the most influential member. He was, at the same time, a man of singular mod- esty, bordering on self-depreciation, and it was a matter of frequent comment during his life- time, that but for his excessive sensitiveness to conspicuous notice, and want of aggressive- ness in respect to personal advancement, he might, with opportunities which were easily within his grasp, have achieved notable suc- cess and distinction, whether in public affairs or private enterprise, in a far wider field of action than the one he chose for the pursuit of his life work. This trait of modesty was cor- relative to his distaste for display or ostenta- tion in all things, and signally manifest in his acts of benevolence. His generous support of his own church and certain other interests were, in the nature of things, more or less matters of public knowledge, but many were the deeds unknown of men by which he helped to present relief, or more permanent advantage, to such causes or individuals as he deemed worthy of his aid, as may be instanced by his unheralded contributions for many years to colored schools in the South.

In politics Mr. Leach was a Whig until the formation of the Republican party, when he became a member of that party, and remained such as long as he lived, though in his later. years he occasionally exhibited much indepen- dence of party ties. He had no taste for pub- lic office, though he accepted many in answer to popular demand, and from a sense of duty. He was for many years a justice of the peace, and first selectman of his town; was post- master from 1849 till 1853, and in 1849 was elected as representative in the Legislature, made memorable by its election of Joseph Trumbull as Governor, he being the last of the famous men of that name to occupy that exalted station. In this Legislature the Free- Soilers held the balance of power in the House of Representatives. In 1860 Mr. Leach was again a respresentative in the Legislature, and

in 1862 was elected senator from the Eigh- teenth District. He served as trustee of the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane from July I, 1887, to July 1, 1891. He was elected a trustee in the Middletown Savings Bank in 1864, and a director of the First National Bank of Middletown in January, 1876, and served with recognized fidelity and ability in both offices, continuously, until his death. On his retirement from business in 1882, after more than forty years of incessant activity and

fruitful labors, he still continued to serve his townspeople, with perhaps a larger measure of usefulness than in preceding years. In his long experience he had gained, for a layman, a very unusual and accurate knowledge of legal principles, and of statute law, and had become proficient in drafting ordinary legal documents and papers. This faculty, com- bined with his recognized wisdom, prudence and conscientiousness, which had for many years made him the valued counselor of his fellow-townsmen generally, now, in the greater leisure of the years following his retirement from business, led to much increased demand on his time and attention for similar service. And thus he lived and wrought until, at the ripe age of seventy-six years, while yet in good vigor of health, and with faculties unimpaired, on January 10, 1898, as he was entering the room of the directors of the First National Bank at Middletown, and had barely said good morning to his associates already assembled for their annual meeting and awaiting his pres- ence, without warning, and in almost an in- stant, the pulsations of his life were stilled. and he had passed forever from the scenes of his earthly life.

On February 7, 1844, Mr. Leach was mar- ried to Lydia M. Thayer, who was born Jan- nary 26, 1823, daughter of Jonathan and Mehit . able ( Whitmore) Thayer. Two daughters were the fruit of this marriage: Ella M .. born November 29, 1844. died November 5, 1883. She was married to George H. Davis, of Durham, and two children were born to them-Edward Lafayette, who died in early childhood, on February 21. 1877. and Wilbur L., an enterprising and influential citizen of Durham, a sketch of whose life appears in an- other part of this work. The other daughter, Georgiana T., was born July 14. 1853, and married Charles E. Bacon, of Middletown, who comes of a substantial and honored line-

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age, and is himself a citizen of respectability and standing. There are two children of this marriage-Grace Ella, born April 11, 1879, and Charles Marsden, born February 22, 1881, both of whom have had liberal educational ad- vantages, and are now living with their par- ents, in whose family, also, the widow of Lev- erett M. Leach, in the enjoyment of good health, and in serene content, is passing the evening of her days.

WILLIAM AUGUSTUS HART, than whom there were few better known men in Middlesex county, was one of the sterling resi- dents of Durham, and was widely known and highly esteemed for his upright life and Puri- tan principles.

Mr. Hart came from one of the old and honorable families of New England, and one of the oldest in Connecticut, he being a repre- sentative of the sixth generation from Deacon Stephen Hart, who was the progenitor of the family in America. His line is from Deacon Stephen through Thomas, Hawkins, Samuel and Samuel (2).

(I) Deacon Stephen Hart, born about 1605, at Braintree, County of Essex, England, came thence to the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1632, accompanied by his wife and daughters Sarah and Mary, and his sons John and Stephen (2). He is supposed to belong to the company that settled Braintree, Mass. He located for a time at Newtown ( now Cam- bridge), where his first wife died. For his second wife he married Margaret Smith, wid- ow of Arthur Smith. Mr. Hart was one of the fifty-four settlers at Cambridge, Mass., later went to Hartford with the company of Rev. Thomas Hooker, in 1635, and was one of the original proprietors there in 1639. At Cambridge he had been a member of Mr. Hooker's church, and continued a member in Hartford. In 1672 he became one of the eighty-four proprietors of Farmington, Conn. In 1647 he was a deputy to the General Court of Connecticut, and continued to serve as such during most of the succeeding years up to 1660, from the town of Farmington. At the latter place he was one of the seven pillars of the church, and was chosen the first deacon. An extensive farmer, he became a man of in- fluence, and was one of the leaders in the town. His death occurred in 1683, his widow dying in 1693.

(II) Thomas Hart, son of Deacon Stephen, was born in 1644, and married Ruth Hawkins, who was born in 1649, in Windsor, Conn., a daughter of Anthony Hawkins, a man of dis- tinction in Farmington, whose wife was the daughter of Gov. Welles, of Connecticut. Mr. Hart served as ensign, lieutenant and captain, respectively, of the train band. Mr. Hart and John Hooker were the two most prominent men of the town, and conspicuous in the Colo- ny, being men of wealth, activity and use- fulness. From 1690 to 171I, for twenty-nine sessions, he represented the town in the Gen- eral Court, and he was several times clerk and speaker. Capt. Hart died in 1726, and was buried with military honors. He was a man of wealth and influence. His family consisted of two daughters and five sons.

(III) Hawkins Hart, son of Capt. Thomas, was born in 1677, in Farmington, and was a farmer. In 1701 he married Sarah Roys, who was born in 1683, daughter of Nathaniel Roys and Sarah (Lathrop), of Wallingford. They lived for a time in Farmington, and then re- moved to Wallingford, where Mrs. Hart died in 1733. Mir. Hart then married Mary Eliot, daughter of Rev. Joseph Eliot and his second wife, Mary ( Willys), of Guilford, the latter a daughter of Hon. Samuel Willys, of Hart- ford. Mr. Hart held the rank of lieutenant, and represented Wallingford in the General Court nine sessions, between 1714 and 1732. He died in 1735. He was a large landholder, and owned and occupied a twenty-seven-acre tract on North Main Street, Wallingford, now known as the Rice (or Roys) homestead. He was a representative man of his time, promi- nent in State, civil and military affairs. Mrs. Mary ( Eliot) Hart was a granddaughter of Rev. John Eliot, the "Apostle to the Indians," who read the Bible to the Redmen under the massive oak at South Natick in 1651 ; he used his own translation of Holy Writ, and was the first to give the Indians this sacred work in their own language. After the death of her first husband Mrs. Hart married Abraham Pierson, who died some time afterward, and his widow married (third) Samuel Hooker, of Kensington, a grandson of Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Farmington. One child was born to Lieut. Hawkins and Mary Hart, Samuel, mentioned below.

(IV) Samuel Hart, son of Lieut. Hawkins, was born in Wallingford July 18, 1735. In

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1759 he married, at Durham, Conn., Abridget Fowler, and settled on a tract of land which had been given to Rev. Joseph Eliot by the Colonial Legislature, for valued and distin- guished service. Both he and his wife were taken into full church communion in 1771. Mr. Hart held the rank of lieutenant in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war, and was wounded at the battle of Sara- toga, September 19, 1777, after which he drew a pension. His death took place January 12, 1805, and his widow passed away November 26, 1827. Their graves are well preserved in the old cemetery of his native town, his bear- ing the bronze marker of the Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution.

! (V) Samuel Hart (2), son of Lieut. Sam- uel, was born July 12, 1770, and was baptized in Durham, Conn. On March 3, 1803, he mar- ried Patience Hubbard, who was born in Au- gust, 1772, a daughter of Eber and Patience (Chittenden) Hubbard. Mr. Hart was a farnt- er, living on his father's homestead, and was an industrious man. Hje died December 25, 1857, his widow surviving until March 15, 1864.

The children of Samuel and Patience Hub- bard Hart were: William Augustus, born April 26, 1806; Edward and Edmund (twins ) , born January 14, 1808; George, born April 18, 1810; Amos and Mary (twins) born Janu- ary I, 1813; Samuel, Jr., born April 15, 1815. The aged grandmother was permitted to see growing up around her these seven grand- children, influencing their young lives by her exemplary life and character. She was an earnest Christian woman, devotedly reading her Bible and walking humbly with God.

: The mother was no less watchful, and de- voted ever to the religious training of her young charges. One beautiful Sunday in September, 1814, this Christian mother, accompanied by the grandmother, with her six little children, all on horseback, crossed Totoket mountain, six miles by a rough moun- tain path, to the home church of her childhood in North Guilford, where she consecrated these young hearts and lives to the service of the Master, all being baptized Sunday, September II, 1814, by Rev. David Baldwin, rector of the Episcopal Church, as follows: William Au- gustus, Edward, Edmund, George, Amos Fow- ler, Mhry. The privilege which this act of hay- ing her children dedicated to the Lord in her

own church, in which they were prominent, with her own family around her, and by her own pastor, was a covenant which cheered her heart and inspired her life. Another source of joy to her in after life was the fact that this consecration was almost the last act of worship in this ancient church, as the new building was dedicated the first Sunday in November fol- lowing, and named St. John's; it is the present place of worship today in North Guilford. It was Mrs. Hart's custom to occasionally attend Sunday services in this church, taking one or two of the children on horseback, going with- out her husband, as he did not like the Epis- copal form of worship. Later in life, when he joined the Congregational Church in Dur- ham, she came with him, as she could wor- ship with him anywhere. She was a good, con- sistent Christian woman.

In the cemetery at Durham Center, over- looked by the old church site, where they and their ancestors had worshiped for a century, on a sunny hill from which the mountain tops of Totoket and Paug, silent sentinels of the old home, are plainly visible, are two grass- covered graves, marked by white slabs, the sa- cred resting-places of Grandfather and Grand- mother Hart, on which we find this record :

Samuel Hart Died Dec. 25" 1857 Aged 87 years.

Patience, his wife Died March 14" 1864. Aged 91 yrs. 5 mos.

And standing beside these graves, we seen to hear her say :

And when, remembering me, you come some day And stand there, speak no praise, but only say, How she loved us! 'Twas that which made her dear! Those are the words that I shall joy to hear.

From the old to the new, from the spirit of the eighteenth century to the opening activi- ties of the nineteenth, one year, three months and fourteen days after the passing of Sam- uel Hart, Sr., the Puritan, the pioneer. the soldier, was born his first grandson, William Augustus Hart, April 26, 1806. Twenty-five years of peace had made many changes in church and State. Advancement in means of education, progress in transportation, increase of commercial facilities, marked the commence- ment of the nineteenth century, which have

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made it the most eventful and progressive in the history of the world.

A glimpse of the conditions of society and the prominent public men in Durham at that time will mark the influences which shaped Mr. Hart's young life, and were potential in the formation of his character. At the time of his birth Rev. David Smith, D. D., was pas- tor of the Church of Christ (of which his parents were members), having been ordained August 15, 1799; there was a membership of 201 persons. Until May, 1804, Durham had been an ecclesiastical parish ; settling ministers was done in town meetings, and all were taxed for their support. Power having been given by the Legislature to form ecclesiastical soci- eties, the first was formed at a meeting held November 19, 1804, the society's committee consisting of: Gen. James Wadsworth, Daniel Parmalee, Esq., Capt. John Johnson; Simeon Parsons, clerk; John Johnson, Daniel Parma- lee, Abner Newton, Ozias Norton, John Tib- bals, deacons. Rev. David Smith, D. D., was clerk of the Durham Library Company. The representatives in the May session of 1806 were Joseph Parsons and Daniel Parmalee; Octo- ber, Daniel Parmalee and Daniel Bates. Since September 16, 1777, 270 had taken the free- man's oath. Simeon Parsons was town clerk, Simeon Parsons, Daniel Parmalee and Charles Coe were justices of the peace. The repre- sentatives in the Legislature in 1812 opposed the war. Durham was represented in the May session by: Worthington G. Chauncey and Isaac Newton, and by Abner Newton and John Butler in October. In the adoption of the State Constitution, in 1818, the vote was eighty-two yeas, seventy-four nays.

In the war with Mexico the State Legisla- ture of 1847 opposed and censured the Federal government. It is stated the representatives from Durham were divided, one yea, one nay. They were Clement M. Parsons and Wolcott R. Stone.

In the Civil war of 1861-65 Durham sus- tained the Federal government, furnishing $12,890 and eighty-five men, represented in seventeen regiments; among them were three sons of William Augustus Hart. During the war the following men served the town as representatives : 1861, Horatio N. Fowler, Joel Austin ; 1862, B. B. Beecher. David C. Camp; 1863, Edward R. Camp, William C. Ives; 1864, Roger W. Newton, William H. Canfield.

In the Senate were: 1862, Leverett M). Leach ; 1864, William C. Fowler.

The first postmaster at Durham was David Camp, appointed July Ist, 1800. A post office had been established in New Haven since April, 1755, and it is quite clear that there was no regular mail service between these dates. The first regular service of which we have record, from New Haven by Durham, Middletown, Upper Houses and Wethersfield to Hartford, tri-weekly, was let from October II, 18II, to December 31, 1814. The old road-the route traveled as the present turnpike-was not surveyed until 1809-1812, was incorporated in 1813, and not fully completed until 1820. Ben- jamin Franklin was Postmaster-General from 1753 until 1774, when he was ejected because of his opposition to oppressive measures of the British Ministry. Again appointed by the Con- tinental Congress in 1776, he resigned on his appointment as ambassador to France. In 1761 he established a weekly post between New York and Boston, leaving these places on Thursdays, meeting in Hartford on Saturdays, returning to the place of starting on Wednes- days.

On August 30, 1776, the following enact- ment passed the Continental Congress :

"Resolved, that the communication of in- telligence with frequency and dispatch from one part to another of this extensive continent is essentially requisite to its safety ; that there- fore there be employed on the several post roads a rider for every twenty-five or thirty miles, whose business it shall be to proceed through his stage three times in every week, setting out immediately on receipt of the mail, and traveling with the same by night and by day without stopping until he shall have deliv- ered it to the next rider."

The Colonial records furnish information of regular means of communication by the lay- out of roads between Hartford and New Ha- ven as early as 1717, towns being ordered from time to time to lay out, repair and make them fit for travel. The present old road, so-called, running past the house of Samuel Hart, Sr., was opened previous to its occupancy in 1759. In the diary of President Manning he refers to a trip from New Haven to Durham September 29, 1779, from, Paug, Northford, "excellent land and husbandry and buildings uncommonly elegant." This was over the before-mentioned road. In 1767 selectmen in1

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various towns were ordered to set up mile- stones on all the post roads, showing the dis- tance from country towns.

In those days traveling from New York to Boston was by a clumsy stage, making about fifty miles a day, so that by rising at three or four o'clock in the morning, and traveling well into the night, one was able to reach Bos- ton in six days. The mails were carried by postriders, and most of the travel was on horse- back. The new era in transportation agencies, turnpikes, commenced in 1797, following as a rule the old highways. Tollgates were es- tablished and rates of toll fixed. The exemp- tion clause ran as follow's :

. "Persons traveling to attend public wor- ship, funerals, society, town or freernen's meetings, and persons obliged to do military duty and traveling to attend trainings; per- sons going to and from gristmills; and per- sons living within one mile of said gates, and not passing said gates more than one mile to attend their ordinary farming business, shall not be liable to the payment of said toll."

The Hartford, New Haven, Durham & Middletown turnpike was incorporated in 1813, and completed in 1814. Edward Everett gives an account of a stage ride from Boston to New York in two days, with a stop of one hour at 'Hartford, in October, 1814.

Durham was strict to enforce the laws, holding office being considered a duty. A man elected to office paid a fine unless he per- formed services, and no emolument was at- tached to town offices. Sunday was strictly observed, and travelers on the Sabbath were stopped and sometimes fined. The whipping post was used for the punishment of petty crimes. Durham, being rather isolated, as- sumed a character somewhat of its own, where existed order, civility and the essence of good breeding, and under the influence of the three distinguished clergymen of the time, Chauncey, Goodrich and Smith, its character for religion and education had been formed.

Into this condition of society young Hart was born, and its conditions served to influence and mould his career. His early taste and ambition was to secure an education. He had but few books, and the advantages of public school but two months in the year, a four- months district school alternating two months each in the Southwest and West school dis- tricts. Bent on the improvement of his op-

portunities, and reaching out to benefit his fellowman, we find recorded in his diary, June 29, 1826, "The Writer's Wish :"

"May I be enabled while writing this book to have my mind steadily fixed upon liberty, virtue and religion, and, if it should ever come before the public, may it be read with atten- tion ; and with the blessing of the God of peace be the means of doing some good in the world."

Thus handicapped, and being obliged to earn as much as possible toward the support of his father's large family, he faithfully and zealously engaged in the wage struggle, seek- ing employment among the farmers who need- ed service, and at the age of twenty we find him preparing a Fourth of July oration, as he weeded onions in the fields of Jonathan Fow- ler, in White Hollow, Northford, then part of Guilford. This oration, which marked his first public debut, was delivered in Northford July 4, 1826.

Being interested in education and young people Mr. Hart prepared himself, as best he could, to teach school. His first school was in Higganum, in the Candlewood Hill Dis- trict, where he taught five months at fifteen dollars per month, and boarded around. We have this statement from a man who attended his school, and who is now eighty-six years . old : "I, Jesse Spencer, of Higganum, remem- ber going to school to Mr. Hart in 1826. The school house was fifty or sixty years old and unfit then. It has since been sold at auction. removed, and not a vestige of it remains. I

was ten years old. Everyone liked him. He was very popular with every family in the district. There were about fifty scholars in the school. He was a good teacher, and a good man, opened school with prayer, an ex- ception by teachers while I attended school. I think I ang; the only person living who at- tended his school, and my recollections of that school term are among the most pleasant memories of the past. At the close of the term he delivered a public address to the par- ents and scholars.'

The winter of 1827-28 Mr. Hart tanght school in North Madison, where Joseph Jones was school committeeman. While teaching this school he fornied the acquaintance of Mr. Jones' daughter, whom he afterward married. It is narrated that during this term of school the gossip of the district turned upon the fre-

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quent calls of the schoolmaster on the com- mitteeman, and wished he would be more prompt in his payments, that he might not have to call so frequently for his wages. The most fruitful result of that school term, bear- ing upon the future, was his marriage, June 23, 1828, to Sally Maria Jones, of North Madi- son, daughter of Joseph Jones and Lucy Aus- tin.

The old road by the Hart home was aban- doned as a thoroughfare on the completion of the new turnpike, about 1820. Its opening through the Hart farm made eligible a beauti- ful building site, which William A. received as a gift from his father; it was a part of the Colonial grant to Joseph Eliot, and of the undivided estate left by Samuel Hart, Sr., to his three sons, Daniel, Samuel, Jr., and John Hart, on which M.r. Hart built the future home of his large family, in whose possession it still remains. This deed was recorded in the town clerk's office in Durham, by Worthington G. Chauncey, town clerk, May 7, 1827, and is the only transfer by deed from the original land grant made to Joseph Eliot by the Colon- ial Legislature in 1668, a period of 159 years. On this beautiful site his first act was to plant the majestic row of maples which are today the pride and joy of a century past, beneath whose · shades the childhood days of many happy lives are woven into the bright memories which cluster around the old home of today. There he built the red house still standing, and es- tablished the new home, bringing his young bride of twenty summers in the month of "June, the month of roses," to this charming valley, when nature in her fullness had decked it in her carpet of green and decorated it in glowing colors, with the daisy, clover, but- tercup and lily covering the hills and wooded slopes, bright with foliage and dark with ever- greens.

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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 83

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