Commemorative biographical record of New Haven county, Connecticut, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, V. I, Pt 1, Part 10

Author: Beers (J.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Commemorative biographical record of New Haven county, Connecticut, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, V. I, Pt 1 > Part 10

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On June 30, 1841, Mr. Merriman was married to Margaret, daughter of Edward Field, of Water- bury, and to them were born children, as follows: Charlotte B., Sarah M., Helen, Margaret F. (wife of Dr. Frank E. Castle, of Waterbury), William B. and Edmund F.

William B. Merriman is teller in the Waterbury National Bank. On Nov. 17, 1886, he was married to Miss Sarah Kingsbury Parsons.

JOHN C. BOOTH, late a prominent manu- facturer, capitalist, and leading citizen of Water- bury, formerly of the Holmes, Booth & Haydens Co., was a native of Newtown, Conn., and a de- scendant of one of the earliest and most prominent families of Connecticut.

Richard Booth, the progenitor of the Booth family in Fairfield county, Conn., emigrated from Cheshire, England, some time between 1630 and 1640. He married Elizabeth Hawley, a sister of Capt. Josephi Hawley, of Stratford, and settled in Stratford in 1640.

Jonathan Booth, son of Sergeant John Booth and grandson of Richard Booth, the emigrant, was one of the founders of Newtown, Conn. He. in company with his cousin Ebenezer Booth, located there in 1707-8. Journeying thither from Stratford they purchased from the tribe of Pootatuck In- dians, an extensive tract of land along the Housa- tonic river on a part of which the village of New- town. was afterwards built. From this Jonathan and Ebenezer Booth all the Booth of Newtown have descended.

John C. Booth was born June 13, 1808, in New- town, Conn., the son of Philo and Aurelia Booth. He was educated in his native town, and in Dan- bury, Conn., and for some years was himself a teacher in the latter town. He began his business career as a clerk in a store in Newtown. In 1832 he went to Meriden, Conn., as agent for the nianti- factured goods of that place, and in 1835 lie be-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

came a traveling salesman for Benedict and Burn- ham, and was also employed to open local trade for Baldwin, Burnham & Co., on the establishment of their agency in New York. He remained there un- til 1836. After four years in the West, he returned and took an interest in Benedict & Burnham's, as- suming charge of their store in Waterbury. Upon the organization of this manufacturing concern in 1843, Mr. Booth was chosen one of its directors, a position he held until 1852. On Feb. 21, 1853, he united with Israel Holmes and others in organ- izing Holmes, Booth & Haydens, with which con- cern he remained tintil 1869. That year Israel Holmes, L. J. Atwood, D. S. Plumb and Mr. Booth formed a new company of Plumb & Atwood with a capital of $400,000, for the manufacture of brass articles. On May 6th the Thomas Manufacturing Co., of Thomaston, was consolidated with it, a factory built there and one in Waterbury. At the beginning Mr. Holmes was president, Mr. Bootlı secretary, and Mr. Plumb, treasurer. Mr. Booth became president after the death of Mr. Holmes. In 1873 Mr. Booth retired from active business though retaining his official relations as president and director. The Holmes, Booth & Haydens Co. have more than one and a half million dollars in- vested in their business, and the company now rank among the largest producers of brass, German sil- ver, and copper in sheets, wire, rods, rivets, jack chains, tuibing, library and table lamps, etc.

Mr. Booth was pre-eminently a thrifty business man, careful and watchful in all his affairs to such an extent that he acquired a competency said to be greater than that of any other man in Waterbury. He gave large sums to St. Margaret's school, St. John's and Trinity school (Episcopal), including his share of the present site of St. John's rectory, and to other objects. He was once a vestryman and always a consistent attendant of St. John's. He was a trustee of the Riverside Cemetery Associa- tion. In his relations with several corporations with which he was connected, he showed himself a wise counselor and shrewd financier, and their success has been owing in no small way to his far sightedness and sound judgment. His personal wants were few and simple. He had no taste for display, and though wealthy never departed from the quiet and retiring manner of life he most en- joyed. At the time of the death of Mr. Bootlı, which occurred July 29, 1886, the Waterbury American said editorially :

The life of John C. Booth, the news of whose death startled the community this morning. was in many re- spects typical of the spirit which has made Waterbury the thrifty and prosperous city that it is. He began almost with its own modest beginning, and pushed along with it to the present healthy stage of its industrial growth. He drops out now full of years, nd the rewards of business tact and industry, while it goes on to a future which he has foreseen, and may be continued in a considerable measure responsible for. Death has been making its way with stern activity among the pioneers of Waterbury dur-

ing the past few years, and perhaps John C. Booth is as conspicuous a figure among the older landmarks as could have been chosen for its fatal aim. He was a man of quaint manner, simple and unostentatious modes of life, pa- tient, persevering and tenacious of purpose, sound of judg- ment and not given to mistakes in business. In his home and among his close acquaintances he was wont to ex- hibit a quaint dry humor, the greater side of a nature of which the world of business did not often obtain a glimpse. .

There follows an extract taken from the funeral discourse of the Rev. Dr. Rowland :

Mr. Booth will be long remembered in the community for his ability as a man of business. for his perseverance and enterprise, as well as for his gentle and kindly nature. But those who knew him best remember him for his do- mestic virtues. for his fidelity and affectionate nature in the home circle, for his devotion to wife and children. It is such characters that fill the homes of earth with the spirit of Him who came not to be ministered unto. but to minister. In his relations to the church and his intercourse with the world he has shown himself obedient to the pre- cept which bids us "bear one another's burdens."

On Feb. 19, 1840, Mr. Booth was married to Miss Eunice Tucker, of Oxford. Conn. She died Aug. 20, 1894. Their children were: Sarah H., born in 1846, and died in 1873: and Mary E., the wife of Edward M. Burrell, a prominent manu- facturer and citizen of Waterbury.

HON. DEXTER RUSSELL WRIGHT. whose death occurred in New Haven July 23. 1886, was a member of the New Haven County Bar for nearly forty years and was widely known as an able and reliable corporation and business lawyer. As a cit- izen and public man lie attained distinction.

Mr. Wright was born June 27. 1821, at Wind- sor. Vt., a son of Alpheus and Anna (Loveland) Wright. The father was engaged in the milling and lumber business and subsequently removed to the State of New York. When Dexter R. Wright was prepared he entered Wesleyan at Middletown, from which he was graduated in IS45. For a brief period he was principal of the Meriden Academy and then entered the Law Department of Yale, from which he was graduated in 1848. While pursuing his studies he was for a time clerk in the office of E. K. Foster, of New Haven. In 1848 he was ad- mitted to the Bar and began the practice of his pro- fession in Meriden. With the exception of a brief period of business and legal experience with the pioneers of California. in 1850 and IS51. he con- tinued in practice in Meriden until 1862. In No- vember, 1863, Mr. Wright opened an office in New Haven, where he followed his professional career the remaining years of his life. Here his abilities as a commercial and buisiness lawyer and counselor became noted and a large and lucrative practice was ready to his hand. He was always a hard-working student of his profession and no opportunity to pro- tect his clients was neglected. He had a logical mind and a tenacious memory, which held the great principles of the law fairly at liis command, as well

د. "ايه أيامديما ملح - وأس٠٠ الملائك هه ه اريت ٩٧٤ ٥٠١١٠

والد غو

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

as the more important and significant decisions of the courts. Rarely advising litigation if an honora- ble settlement could be made he not infrequently avoided extended and disastrous litigation, even at his own expense. The briefs which Mr. Wright submitted to the Supreme Court were prepared with great skill and showed remarkable familiarity with the English language. Courteous and affable to all with whom he came in contact, his commanding form and fine carriage, added to his learning and eloquence, gave him much influence with both court and jury.

Mr. Wright began life as a Democrat and was a warm adherent of the principles of that party as they were declared prior to 1861. In 1849 he was elected to the State Senate from the Sixth District, being supported by both Democrats and the Free Soilers. In the election of 1860 MIr. Wright agreed with those Democrats who, under the leadership of the Hartford Times, supported Senator Brecken- ridge for President. When the Secession movement took definite shape and could not be allayed Mr. Wright and his intimate personal and business friend, Charles Parker, of Meriden, without hesita- tion ranged themselves on the side of the Union and, in company with James T. Pratt, Roger Averill and other Democrats, worked with surpassing devotion for its preservation. Mr. Wright was made lieu- tenant-colonel of the 14th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, and in August, 1862, was made colonel of a regiment composed of recruits from New Haven county. This was the 15th Conn. Vols. which, under Col. Wright's careful and thorough training, quickly became one of the most promising regiments camped around Washington in the fall of 1862. The 15th Connecticut was brigaded with four other regi- ments and Colonel Wright became the commander. The Colonel made his brigade, as he had before inade his regiment, noticeable for its drill and man- agement. His tent was a place for the study of tac- tics and, had not political obstructions hindered, he would have been made a brigadier general long before the forward movement began. Early in 1863 he was directed to take his brigade to Freder- icksburg, and though he had been seriously injured by the overturning of an ambulance he promptly led his troops to Falmouth and there reported for duty. To the surprise of his men the brigade was broken up and Col. Wright found himself attached to one of the older, but numerically weaker bri- gades, with but little prospect of receiving a com- mission as brigadier general. He was under com- mand of officers not so able and thorough as him- self, whose chief merit was political power behind them.

In March, 1863, Col. Wright, still suffering from the effects of his injury at Alexandria and ill from the effects of exposure during Burnside's futile movements around Fredericksburg. resignal his command and returned home to throw himself into the cause of the Union Republican party in the

heated campaign then in progress between the Dem- ocrats with Thomas H. Seymour, on a peace plat- form, and William A. Buckingham as the candidate of the Union party. Col. Wright was elected to the State Legislature as the representative from Meri- den and during the sessions of May and November, 1863, acted as chairman of the committee on Mili- tary Affairs, at that time perhaps the most import- ant in the House. He was an acknowledged leader in a House that contained some of the brainiest men of the State. He took a brilliant part in the pro- tracted debate over the Vallandigliam question and reported the bill for the organization of colored troops from the State. Col. Wright took an active part in the organization of the 29th and 30th Con- necticut Colored Volunteer Infantry, and materially assisted in securing their equipment. In the sum- mer of 1863 he was made a member of the enroll- ment board for the Second Congressional District and filled this position with credit to the end of the war. Following the advent of peace Col. Wright allied himself with the Republican party and became one of its recognized leaders in the State. He was president of the convention which nominated Joseph R. Hawley for governor in 1866 and manifested un- usual gifts as a presiding officer. For several years he was a member of the city council and the board of alderman of New Haven, and in 1873 was made corporation council of New Haven. For four years he was United States district attorney for Con- necticut, and in 1878 was elected a representative to the General Assembly and was chosen Speaker of the House in January, 1879. He was a stanch sup- porter of James A. Garfield and James G. Blaine. During all these years of public activity no client of his ever suffered from a·neglect of his interests, nor would be permit his earnest work in his profession to lag. As a citizen Col. Wright was always deeply devoted to. the growth, prosperity and general im- provement of Meriden and New Haven. He had charge of the erection of many of the public build- ings in both these places and his abilities were ever at the command of the community which he called home.

Col. Wright was married Feb. 3, 1848, to Miss Maria H. Phelps, a daughter of Col. Epaphras L. Phelps, of East Windsor, Conn., and this union was blessed with the following children: (1) Dexter R., born in 1852, died young. (2) Maria A., born April 8. 1854, in 1872 married Henry L. Hinton, of New York city, and she became the mother of three children, Russell Wright, Athelbert (who died at the age of sixteen years), and Chalmers (who died in infancy). (3) Charles P., born in 1857. died young. (4) Harriet P., born Jan. 31. 1860, was married in 1886 to Elisha Hewitt, of New Haven. who is engaged in the drug business in that city and is a lineal descendant of Gen. Israel Putnam, of Revolutionary fame. They have one child, Dexter Wright, born March 25, 1800. (3) Paul. born Feb. 23, 1862, was married to Minnie L. Crawford and

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

lives in Chicago, where he is engaged in the coal business. They have two children, Mary and Ruth. (6) Arthur B. is a lawyer in South Dakota. He married Harriet B. Spraguc, a native of New York City, and they have had one child, Roswell Sprague.

Mrs. Maria H. (Phelps) Wright was born July 6, 1823, and is a descendant in the seventh genera- tion from William Phelps, a native of Tewkesbury, England, who removed to Dorsetshire, where he was married; his wife's name was Elizabeth. In 1630 he came to Dorchester, Mass., in company with Rev. William Warham, of whose church in Ply- mouth, England, he was an original member. In 1636 he removed to Windsor, Connecticut.

Lieut. Timothy Phelps, a son of the emigrant William Phelps, was born in 1639 and was married in 1661 to Mary, daughter of Edward Griswold, of Kenilworth, Conn. He made his home in Windsor.

Timothy Phelps, son of Lieut. Timothy, was born in 1663, was married in 1686 to Martha Crow and about 1690 removed to Hebron, Conn., where he was one of the first selectman of the town, chosen in 1708, on the organization of Hebron.

Charles Phelps, son of Timothy, was born in . 1702 and was married in 1726 to Hepzibah, daugh- ter of Robert Stiles.

Bethuel Phelps, son of the foregoing, was born in 1748 and was married when thirty years old to Caroline Lord. In 1780 he removed to Tolland and from there to .West Point, Conn., where he died in 1832.

Col. Epaphras L .. Phelps, son of Bethuel, and the father of Mrs. Wright, was born May 16, 1783, in Tolland, and was married (first) in 1810 to Eliz- abeth, daughter of Major Joel and Huldah (Allen) Hopkins. She was born Feb. 12, 1791, and died in 1827. He died June 28, 1868, at West Point, Connecticut.

HON. JOSEPH SHELDON, of New Haven, is an able lawyer and one of the oldest members of the New Haven County Bar, a public speaker and lecturer of distinction, and an all-around public- spirited man. He has been one of the city's con- spicuous characters for fifty years and more, and his reputation has long ago gone out beyond city, county and State limits.

Mr. Sheldon was born Jan. 7. 1828, at Water- town, Jefferson Co., N. Y., fourth son of Col. Jo- seph and Hepzibah (Richardson) Sheldon. His early boyhood was passed on his father's farm, in work and attendance at the district school. When fourteen years of age he began teaching school himself, teaching through the winters of 1842-43, 1843-44 and 1844-45, with flattering success. He decided upon a college course, and in the spring of 1845 began preparing to enter Hamilton College, at Clinton, N. Y. He studied in Union Academy, at Rodman, N. Y .. and later at the Wack River Liter- ary and Religious Institute, at Watertown, then under the principalship of Rev. J. R. Boyd, a Pres-

byterian clergyman. Owing to failing health he abandoned his plan of a college course, but con- tinued to study at Union Academy, at Belleville, N. Y. Through the years of 1846 and 1847 lie al- ternated in study and teaching at various places in the State of New York. In May, 1848, very much against the will of his patrons, he relinquished charge of the large school at Watertown, and started out on a tour of investigation, desiring to go to New York, New Haven and Cambridge to learn what hielp the newly established Scientific and Agricultural Schools could bring to practical farming. He found the expense of a course of study at these institutions too great for him to un- dertake. Accidentally he met upon the street of New Haven the late Dr. Taylor, who in the course conversation persuaded him to enter the under- graduate department of Yale College; in the fall of 1848 he joined the Sophomore class. He was graduated in 1851, having distinguished himself in debate and English composition. Upon his gradua- tion he at once began preparation for the law, studying first at Watertown, N. Y., and later in Yale Law School, from which latter he was grad- uated in 1853, and received from that institution the degree of M. A. When Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visited the United States in the winter of 1852, young Sheldon was selected by the students from all departments of Yale to prepare the address that was sent from that institution to the patriot.

Both before and after graduation Mr. Sheldon was a student in the law office of Hon. E. K. Foster, of New Haven, and soon found considerable legal business on his hands. In 1854 he also taught in the famous Military and Scientific School of Gen. Russell and Major Skinner, at New Haven. At this time he instituted and for two years conducted very successfully "The Peoples Lectures," chiefly with the view of aiding the slavery agitation, then an important question before the people, and partly to excite a more stirring intellectual life; but the invitations for his services to lecture at various points became so great and trespassed so much upon his time that in two or three years he saw that he must give up his profession or the lecture field so he abandoned the latter. Mr. Sheldon speedily won reputation in his profession and a lucrative practice. He early formed a law partnership with Lyman E. Munson, which was continued until the latter was appointed by President Lincoln a dis- trict judge of Montana. As a lawyer Mr. Sheldon achieved success and made a good reputation.

Judge Sheldon in his political affiliations has generally acted with the Republican party. In the campaign of 1856 he took an active part for Fre- mont. As a young man he was bitterly opposed to slavery and took a leading part in the debates of that period. Among the active Abolitionists of New Haven he was one of the few who never shrank from assisting the fugitive slaves and dur- ing all of his professional work the ordinary chiv-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

alry of the profession in regard to meritorious cases for the friendless, the hopelessly poor, was rather especially emphasized, particularly among the peo- ple of color. Soon after the election of President Lincoln, for which Mr. Sheldon labored zealously, the latter was employed by several of the leading carriage-makers of New Haven upon the perilous undertaking of settling their claims in the South- ern States. He went South by way of Baltimore, Norfolk and Weldon. At the little town of Wil- son, forty miles below Weldon, he was finally com- pelled by a drunken mob, to turn back, a guard being placed over him to make sure that he act- ually did leave the State. On his return to New Haven, by invitation, he addressed a large audience in Music Hall on "His Southern Experiences." During the Civil war that followed he assisted in sustaining an advanced public sentiment and in pro- curing enlistments. He believed that the negro must eventually be employed as a soldier, and at one time, when negro orphan asylums were being sacked in New York, Mr. Sheldon quietly got to- gether a company of thirty or forty colored men, and at midnight, in the basement of Music Hall, instructed them in military drill, all hands being pledged to secrecy. When the negroes were called for almost every man of them became a non-com- missioned officer in the 29th or 30th Regiment, and inspired confidence by his military knowledge and aptness.

In 1872 Mr. Sheldon heartily supported Horace Greeley for the Presidency. On a number of oc- casions he has frankly differed from the Republican party on questions of public policy. Early in the 'seventies he vigorously opposed the financial policy of our government, which was leading toward the "resumption" that finally prevailed. In the fall of 1875 he began a series of public meetings in New Haven to resist the destruction of the greenbacks, and to favor the remonetization of silver. In May, 1876, he delivered by invitation of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce an address before that body on the "Currency," which was widely published. He has long been known as an enthusiastic and · efficient advocate of temperance and woman's suf- frage. From 1879 to 1882 Mr. Sheldon served the Municipality of New Haven as an alderman. He was chairman of the committees to which were re- ferred the project of the Western Boulevard sewer and the retention and repair of the State House. The reports of the committees upon those subjects were drawn by him. In 1881-83 he held the judge- ship of the city court. In 1881 he was appointed by Gov. Bigelow to represent the State in the Tariff Convention in New York, where he delivered an address. In 1884 Judge Sheldon was delegated by the Government of the United States, and also by the National Association of the Red Cross, to a conference of the treaty nations of the Societies of the Red Cross held at Geneva. He drew up and delivered the address of the American delegation

on one of the most important controverted ques- tions before the conference, and the question was carried unanimously, in accordance with the views urged in that address.

Judge Sheldon has been connected with a num- ber of business enterprises, and as a manager of business corporations he has been remarkably suc- cessful. He has also given a great deal of atten- tion to the development of real estate. He became the owner of the foreign patents for a singularly ingenious machine for the manufacture of brushes, the perfecting of which, and the other necessary machinery, and the establishment in London, Eng- land, of the business of manufacturing and selling machine-made brushes, occupied much of his time for six years. In 1874 he sold out his holdings to a joint-stock corporation, which continued and en- larged the business on the lines originally laid out by him, until the establishment has become the largest, most perfect, and profitable brush-making concern in the world.

Judge Sheldon became a Freemason in 1883 and in the ensuing year became a member of the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences. Aside from his political efforts in public speaking he is well known for his Fourth of July Memorial ad- dresses and his oration upon the death of President Garfield. Religiously he is a Unitarian, but as there was no church of that denomination in New Haven he has long been identified with the Universalist Society, and for years took an active part in the Sabbath-school and the conference meetings of the Church. He also has been a generous contributor to the Society's support.

In September, 1861, Judge Sheldon was married to Abby, daughter of Samuel Elbridge Barker, of Onondaga county, N. Y., who was a grandnephew of Hon. Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts. Mrs. Sheldon, like her father before her, was on terms of special friendship with the early Abolitionists of Central New York-Gerrit Smith, Samuel J. May and Fred Douglass. Two children-daughters- were born to Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon.

For thirty years Mr. Sheldon has been an in- defatigable student of political economy and finance. It has been the dominant feature of the best years of his life, and he has worked tirelessly and sacrificed his own interests consciously and constantly in order to arouse the people to an appreciation of the overwhelming importance of an intelligent under- standing of questions of national financial policy. He is an ardent bimetallist, and has delivered a great many addresses on this subject. the most im- portant one possibly being before the American Social Science Association at Saratoga. He was for twenty years a leading member of the National Bimetallic League and was one of the few Eastern Republicans who left their party in 1896 because of their attitude on the money question and campaigned vigorously for William J. Bryan in that year and again in 1900. Every department

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Commemorative biographical record of New Haven county, Connecticut, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, V. I, Pt 1, Part 10

Author: Beers (J.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Beers (J.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1040