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 45

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 45

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

On Nov. 7, 1855, Mr. Russell was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Curtis, who was born in Hamden, Conn., May 28, 1823. a daughter of Philo and Rachel (Potter) Curtis. She was the oldest in a family of six children, the others being Caroline, who died at the age of two years; Emeline, wife of Charles A. Warren; Levi W., a resident of Fair Haven ; Ellen, wife of James Sanderson ; and David, a resident of New Haven. The father of this family died in 1865, at the age of seventy-seven years, the mother in 1891, at the age of ninety-three years.

To Mr. and Mrs. Russell were born three chil- dren, namely: (1) Mary A., born Oct. 26, 1856,

married James P. Ricketts, of New Haven, and died Jan. 23, 1893. She had three children, Jessie Curtis, born Feb. 25. 1888; Margery Cooper, Nov. 14, 1800; and Harold Russell, Dec. 5, 1891 (died Jan. 10, 1895). (2) Georgiana, born March 6, 1858, is the wife of Edward B. Rowe, who is ch- gaged in the ice and dairy business in New Haven, and they have two children, William Russell and Mary Curtis. (3) Caroline M., born March 16, 1860, died Jan. 20, 1882, unmarried. Mr. Russell died upon the old homestead July 25, 1872. He was a sincere and consistent Christian, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and took quite an act- ive interest in church work. For many years he la- bored with all the strength of a great nature and all the earnestness of a true heart for the bettering of the world about hini, and when he was called to rest and reward of the higher world his best monu- ment was found in the love and respect of the com- munity in which he lived. He was never active in politics or public maters. For three years after his death Mrs. Russell superintended the operation of the farm, and continued to reside thereon until 1892. since which time she has made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Rowe. She is a most estimable lady. beloved by all who know lier.

JAMES FAIRMAN was in his day a promi- nent resident of New Haven, where for many years he was one of the leading men in the dry-goods busi- ness and active also in public life. He was a native of Newtown, Conn., born July 16, 1817, son of James B. Fairman also a native of Newtown, who held various public offices there and was well and favor- ably known in that locality. James B. Fairman had a family of seven children, four sons and three daugh- ters.

James Fairman remained in his native place until he was fourteen years of age, receiving his early edu- cation in the district schools. On leaving home Mr. Fairman came to New Haven, where he commenced work as a clerk in the dry-goods store of Washing- ton . Yale, a prominent dry-goods man, with whom he continued a number of years. He then started that business on his own account, his location being in Chapel street, between Church and Orange. After many years in this line he entered the paper- hanging and carpet business, in which he was en- gaged for himself some time, subsequently acting as manager of the paper-hanging department of H. B. Armstrong's establishment, with which he was con- nected the greater part of the time until his death, in February, 1892, at the age of nearly seventy-five years. Mr. Fairman was a well-known member of the Chamber of Commerce. At the time of his re- tirement from active business he was one of the old- est dry-goods men in the city. Public-spirited and deeply interested in the growth and progress of his adopted city, he was an efficient worker in municipal affairs, and was honored with election to the board of aldermen and common council, in which he served

WILLIAM O. RUSSELL.

193

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

many years. In political affiliation he was a Repub- lican. Ile was an active church member, attending the Calvary Baptist Church, in which he served as member of the society's committee, and he was al- ways deeply interested in church work.

WII.COX. Conspicuously prominent in the growth and development of Meriden was the late Hon. Horace C. Wilcox, the founder of the Meri- den Britannia Co., and whose name has been prom- inently identified with almost every other of the many large industries that have given fame to the name of Wilcox as well as to that of the "Silver City."

Horace C. Wilcox was a descendant in the seventh generation from John Wilcock ( Wilcox), who was an original proprietor of Hartford in 1639. He had a son, John, who accompanied him from England. The family, however, is of Saxon origin, and was seated at Bury St. Edmonds, in the county of Suffolk, England, before the Norman Conquest.

The line of the descent of Horace C. Wilcox is through John (2), Ephraim, John (3), Joseph and Elisha B.

(II) John Wilcox (2), son of John Wilcox, was four times married, his son. Ephraim Wilcox, be- ing a child of his third wife, Mary. John Wilcox moved to Middletown, Conn., in 1654.

(III) Ephraim Wilcox, son of Jolin Wilcox, born in 1672, married at Middletown, in 1698.

(IV) John Wilcox (3) was a son of Ephraim Wilcox. His wife's Christian name was Hannah, and they resided in Middletown.

(V) Joseph Wilcox, son of John Wilcox (3). born in 1746. married in 1785, Miriam, daughter of Josiah and Sybil Bacon.

(VI) Elisha B. Wilcox, son of Joseph Wilcox, was born June 20, 1795, in Westfield Parish, Mid- dletown. On Jan. 26, 1818, he married Hepsi- bah Cornwell, and the union was blessed with chil- (iren as follows : Frances S .. Lucy M .. Hannah J., Horace C., Julia, Jedediah, Dennis Cornwell, Ed- son, Hezekiah, Edmund N., Mary E., and Watson Elisha.

HORACE C. WILCOX was born Jan. 24, 1824. in Westfield parish, town of Middletown, Conn., where in the neighboring schools, he received the usual education given to the sons of general farmers of that day. He remained at home, assisting his fa- ther on the farm, until of age. He began his busi- ness career as a peddler of tinware through the country, at which he continued a couple of years. Following this, in 1850, he went on the road as a traveling salesman for James Frary, a manufacturer of Britannia ware. Later he traveled in the same capacity for William Lyman and John Munson, of Wallingford, Conn., and Isaac C. Lewis, of Meri- den, manufacturers of the same line of goods. In 1852 Mr. Wilcox, along with his brother, Dennis C. Wilcox, Isaac C. Lewis, James A. Frary, Lemuel J. Curtis, W. W. Lyman and John Munson, or-

ganized the Meriden Brittannia Co., Horace C. Wil- cox becoming secretary and treasurer of the com- pany. In 1866 he succeeded Isaac C. Lewis as president of the company, and continued to hold the office until his death, Aug. 22, 1890. Mr. Wilcox was a man of marvelous energy and perseverance, and devoted his life to the interests of the company. Having in the start, from his experience as a sales- man, become thoroughly identified with the Britan- nia manufacture and its selling markets, he became a power in the new concern from the very begin- ning, and with such associates as those named the company early established itself on a solid and per- manent foundation, though it very soon ceased the manufacture of Britannia, and took up that of silver plated ware and other kindred products, and it be- came the leading establishment of the kind in the world, ever since maintaining such place. To show something of the business in which Mr. Wilcox was so important a. factor, and to whose great ability and untiring energy its marvelous success is in a great measure due, only a brief history is necessary :

In 1856 a large plating factory was built on State street, the first of the large collection of shops in that vicinity. The business had grown so large by 1863 that the company erected the large factory (over 500 feet long) on the west side of State street. The wares of the company by this time were not only sold all over the United States, but exported to many foreign countries, notably to South Amer- ica, where a large and profitable trade was built up, so that a few years later it was necessary to send a representative to that continent, which connection has since been maintained. Gradually warerooms were established in New York, on the Pacific coast, and an agency in London. In 1881 another large factory was built on the corner of Miller and State streets, in Meriden, and in the same year a branch factory was established in Hamilton, Ontario. Later other additions and extensions were made. In 1876 the company made brilliant displays of its produc- tions at the Contennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, repeating them on a still more elaborate scale at the Columbian Fair at Chicago in 1893. They exhibited at Paris in 1889. The capital stock of the company at its organization in 1852 was $25.000, soon in- creased to $60,000; in 1857 to $100.000; in 1860 it was made $200,000: in 1863, $250,000: in 1866, $550,000 ; and in 1879 it was increased to $1, 100,- 000.

But the demands of the great business did not exhaust Mr. Wilcox's ability and sagacity, for he was instrumental in founding many other large in- dustries in Meriden. He was the founder and presi- dent of the Wilcox & White Organ Co., a director in the Meriden Silver Plate Co., the Manning & Bowman Co., the Meriden Saddlery and Leather Co., the Aeolian Organ and Music Co., the Meriden Street Railroad Co .. the Rogers Bros. Co., of Water- bury, Conn., the R. Wallace & Sons Co., of Walling- ford, the William Rogers & Sons Co., of Hartford,

194

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the Meriden Fire Insurance Co., the Home National Bank of Meriden, the Republican Publishing Co., of Meriden, the Walnut Grove Cemetery Associa- tion, and trustee of the City Savings Bank. One of the very important enterprises in which Mr. Wilcox was engaged was the Meriden, Waterbury and Con- necticut River Railroad Co., which he organized for the construction of a road from Meriden to the line of the Naugatuck railroad, as well as Connecticut river, having become satisfied that another outlet for both passengers and freight was essential to the proper development of the interests of Meriden. In this enterprise, with a public spirit universally ap- preciated by his fellow citizens, he invested, with little expectation of adequate returns, more than a million dollars.

While Mr. Wilcox was a hard working business man, he never shirked public duties, and made his influence felt in the various offices he held. In all of them he was an uncompromising Republican. He was an alderman at the time of the organization of the city government, and the fifth mayor of the city of Meriden, holding that office in 1875 and 1876. In 1877 he was elected State senator from Meriden district, and was frequently solicited to accept other offices, but increasing business cares and failing health prevented him from accepting the same. With all his business affairs Mr. Wilcox never neg- lected church matters. His connection with the First Congregational Society began many years ago. He was always one of the heaviest contributors, and served on the building committee which had in charge the building of the present beautiful edifice. Up to 1884 he was on the Society's committees con- nected with that organization.

On Aug. 3, 1849, Mr. Wilcox was married to Charlotte, daughter of Jabez Smith, of Middletown. She died in 1864, and on May 31, 1865, he married Ellen M., daughter of Edmund Parker. To the first marriage were born children as follows: Ella Augusta (now Mrs. William P. Morgan of San Francisco), Georgine, Walter and Allyn. To the second marriage were born George Horace, since his father's death, president of the Britannia Com- pany ; Dwight P., deceased; Horace, deceased; and Florence Cornwell.

On the death of Mr. Wilcox one of the Meriden papers thus referred to his life :

Mr. Wilcox will be mourned in Meriden not as an emi- nently successful business man, not as a founder and pro- moter of great enterprises that have made Meriden known throughout the civilized world, not as an able and faithful servant of the people in positions of public trust that he had occupied, through he was all of these and more. He will be mourned as a friend would be by every member of the community. The vast business enterprises in which he engaged set the pace for the progress of Meriden from an insignificant country village to the proud position she now holds among the manufacturing centers of the country, and how rapid and successful that pace has been, there are plenty of our citizens who know from memory and expeir- ence. The Meriden Britannia Company, whose goods are known throughout the civilized world; the Wilcox and White

-++.

Organ Co., almost as well known, although an infant in years by comparison; the Meriden Silver Plate Co., the Waterbury & Connecticut River Railroad-all these are lasting tributes to the business sagacity, the indomitable pluck and tireless enterprise of Horace C. Wilcox. He was no pampered child of fortune, neither was he a self- made man of the stamp that builds upon the misfortunes of others. His great wealth was the reward of his own hard, persistent endeavor, aided by the native sagacity and rug- ged honesty that characterized the best and noblest of New England's sons.

Mr. Wilcox was a loyal and influential Republican and his sound judgment and faithful service will be missed in the councils of his party. He always took a deep interest in local affairs, and his advice and influence was always tor the best interests of Meriden.

Although Mr. Wilcox had reached that period in his career when he might have taken things easy, so to speak, he still insisted upon close attention to business, even against the advice of his physician, who feared for the con- sequences to one in such delicate health as Mr. Wilcox dur- ing the past six years. The breaking down of the physical man could not conquer the wonderful will power and energy that enabled him to make such progress in the battle of lite. He fought manfully to the last, although he must have been conscious of the fact that the unequal struggle could have but one ending.

To his business associates who have for so many years shared with him the responsibilities and success of his career, the death of Mr. Wilcox must come in the nature of personal affliction. The ties that death rudely sundered were those that twine about the heart and thrive upon the noblest sentiment that man can entertain for man. They have been the growth of years of business and social rela- tions-years that have brought honor and prosperity to all concerned.

To the hundreds of working people who are now and have been in the past employes of the great business con- cerns of which Mr. Wilcox was the head, the loss will come with a force hardly less impressive. Mr. Wilcox, as is well known, was a man of the people and knew how to create and preserve the relations that should exist between employer and employe.

Of the loss to his family nothing need be said. They have lost a kind and indulgent husband and father, and to them the sympathies of the community go out in tais ho ur of their great affliction.

NATHANIEL JOCELYN, artist, was born "1 New Haven, January 31, 1796. His father, Simeon Jocelyn, was noted especially for his skill in mathe- matics. The son learned the art of watchmaking, but when only fifteen began a thorough course of study in drawing, with himself as instructor, and three years later he apprenticed himself to an engraver. At the age of twenty-one he entered into partnership with Tisdale, Danforth & Willard in the Hartford Graphic & Bank Note Engraving Co. and later, with Mr. Danforth, he virtually founded the National Bank Note Engraving Co.

In 1820 Mr. Jocelyn gave up engraving, chang- ing the graver for the pencil, and soon after estab- lished himself as a portrait painter in New Ha- ven, demonstrating his capacity to transfer, to can- vas, faithful likenesses. His skill was the theme of conversation and there was a common desire to · secure portraits painted by him, many of which con- tinte to whisper of his fame. Several of his por- traits appeared in the first exhibition of the National Academy, and in 1849 he was elected academician. He was also elected honorary member of the Phil-

195

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

adelphia Art Union. In 1830 he traveled and stud- ied in Europe with his friend, Prof. S. F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph system. In 1844 he re- ceived the gold palette for the best portrait ex- hibited in the State of Connecticut. The Yale Por- trait Catalogue shows that more of the portraits owned by the University were painted by Jocelyn than by any other artist except Col. Trumbull.

When Webster's Unabridged Dictionary was re- vised in 1847 all the words pertaining to portraiture were intrusted to Mr. Jocelyn and found their way into that work as they left his pen. His name ap- pears in connection with his definitions. As a teacher he had among his pupils Thomas Rossiter, William Oliver Stone and other artists of note. Later he served for many years, with great suc- cess, at the head of the art department of the Amer- ican Bank Note Co., of which he was one of the founders, and still later he retired from active busi- ness and returned to New Haven to exercise his art. His studio was amid the pleasantest of sur- roundings in the Yale Art Building, a structure in the erection of which by his friend, Mr. Street, he had manifested so much interest. H. W. French, in giving a history of Yale Art School, in his in- troductory chapter to "Art and Artists in Connecti- cut" says: "Mr. Jocelyn's influence has been pow- erful for art throughout his long residence in the city; and Mr. Street many times confessed that it was chiefly through suggestions and appeals of Mr. Jocelyn that the fact of this important lack was impressed upon his mind. Hence, in a sense, the art school owes its existence no less to Mr. Jocelyn than to its founder, Mr. Street." An enthusiastic spirit tempted him early in life beyond the con- fines of art into large real-estate transactions, the laying out of streets and the inauguration of many improvements that are the pride of New Haven to- day.

Mr. Jocelyn's common ancestry with the Trum- bull family, which gave Connecticut three govern- ors and the renowned "soldier-artist," Col. John Trumbull, is traceable from Capt. John Higley, who came from England to Windsor in 1666, later re- moving to Simsbury. John Higley was a repre- sentative to the Assembly for thirty-seven terms in twenty-two years, and was proniner.tlv identified with the discovery and development of the rich cop- per mines in Granby, which afterward became the "Newgate" of Connecticut. In view of the artistic talent which displayed itself in both Col. Trumbull and Nathaniel Jocelyn, it is a significant fact that an historian has referred especially to the skill as an artist of Capt. Higley's son, Dr. Samuel Higley, from whom Mr. Jocelyn is descended. The cur- rency known as "Higley coppers," specimens of which are on exhibition at the Connecticut Histori- cal Society in Hartford and the United States Mint at Philadelphia, were designed and manufactured by this Dr. Higley, who also owned the mines.

Mr. Jocelyn was a quiet yet cordial sympathizer

with the slave. The story of the Amistad Africans who were captured by the Spaniards for slaves and brought into the port of New Haven is a matter of history and familiar to all. Mr. Jocelyn was much interested in their behalf and painted the picture of the African leader, Cinquez, which now hangs in the rooms of the Historical Society in New Ha- ven, where is also a fine painting of the artist him- self, by Harry Thompson.

Until his death, which occurred January 13, 1881, at the age of eighty-four, at his home on York street, in New Haven, he was for forty-six years deacon of the North Congregational Church, of New Haven. He was widely known as a man of scholarly tastes, an extensive reader and one of the best authorities on events of the past, both local and general. In announcing his death the New York Journal of Commerce said: "Fifty years ago the name of Jocelyn was better known on the face of a bank note than the name of the bank itself. His portraits were among the cleverest works of the kind produced in this country. He was the founder of the most celebrated of the bank note companies and was a leader in the highest style of art for more than two generations."

The following letter appropriately serves to pre- serve his memory :

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN, Cor. 23d Street and 4th Avenue, NEW YORK, JAN'Y. 25, 1881.

To Mr. Jocelyn P. Cleaveland,

DEAR SIR :

The Academy desires to express its high regard for the memory of its venerable and esteemed honorary mem- ber, the late Nathaniel Jocelyn, and its sympathy with his bereaved family and friends.

As a member of the Academy in its earliest years, and as an active and efficient fellow worker with its founders, more than half a century ago, Mr. Jocelyn is remembered and lamented by his contemporaries who sur- vive him, and by the later generation of artists, by whom his good life and works are not less known and appreci- ated.

In his long and honorable career, he had the happi- ness to witness the growth of the Academy. in whose progress he was so greatly interested, and to share alike its early trials and its late triumphs; contributing always, both in its darker and in its brighter days, his full quota of successful work.

His prolonged life embraced, indeed, nearly the whole period of the history of American art; and to have filled a worthy and useful place in such a history is a lasting monument to his memory and a noble record for his pos- terity.

With great respect, I am. dear sir,

Truly yours.

[Signed ]

T. ADDISON RICHARDS. Car. Sec. N. A.

Mr. Jocelyn married July 5, 1818, Sarah At- water, daughter of Capt. Samuel Plant, of New Haven. They had seven children, one son and six daughters, the son dying in childhood.

JOCELYN PLANT CLEAVELAND, LL. B., lawyer, son of Rev. James Bradford and Elizabeth H. (Jocelyn) Cleaveland, was born in New Ha-

196

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ven August 22, 1853, in York street, where he lived and died, at what had been for many generations the ancestral home. His father was a Connecticut Congregational minister of ability and his mother is a well-known writer of verse. His maternal grandfather was the late Nathaniel Jocelyn, of whose noteworthy career as a portrait painter this book makes honorable mention. The ancestral line of the subject of this sketch dates back not only to five of the "Mayflower" pilgrims, among them Gov. William Bradford and John Howland, but to those of an earlier age, the Alsopps, of King John's time, the Drakes, of Exmouth fame, and the Honey- woods, of the time of Henry II.

In addition to the other ancestral lines, men- tioned elsewhere in this work in the sketch of his brother, Judge Livingston W. Cleaveland, the gene- alogical record is directly traceable to several early settlers of distinctly local interest, among them William Peck, Richard Miles and Richard. Bald- win.

William Peck, who came to this country in 1637 with Govs. Eaton and Hopkins and Rev. John Day- enport, signed the first compact for the New Ha- ven Colony in June. 1639, and was an original pro- prietor and freeman, and deacon of the original church, the First Church of New Haven.

Richard Miles, also deacon of the First Church, was prominent in the affairs of both New Haven and Milford, where he was one of the judges in civil affairs, Stone No. 4. in the Milford Memorial Bridge, being specifically set apart to his memory.

Richard Baldwin was one of the settlers of Mil- ford, a member of the General Court and one of the committee "for ye consummating of matters be- twixt Connecticutt and us," when the two colonies were joined in 1664. His name is perpetuated by Stone No. 7 in the Milford Memorial Bridge.

The subject of this sketch, after preliminary work in the New Haven preparatory schools, and a course of study in the Scientific Department of Yale College, entered Yale Law School, from which he was graduated in 1876, being admitted to the New Haven County Bar the same year. Here in his native city he practiced his profession for five years, being for four years connected with the firm of Wright & Harrison in the National New Haven Bank Building, and for one year preceding his death in business for himself in the Cutler building. His career, bright with hope, came to a sudden end at the age of twenty-seven, his death, which occurred June 15, 1881, being the result of over-exertion in the sun. He was a member of the North Congre- gational Church and of its choir and musical direc- tor in its mission Sunday-school. He was con- nected with the State Militia, serving in Company F, Second Regiment. C. N. G. ( New Haven Grays ), and was a member of Hiram Lodge, No. 1, F. & A. M.

At the time of his death Mr. Cleaveland was contemplating publishing a book relative to the

rights and duties of police officers and the board of police commissioners. Especially interested in the dangers encountered by brakemen, he was gather- ing facts that he might secure legislation in their behalf. Hopeful, considerate of the interests of others more than of his own, persevering, an earnest and ingenious pleader at the Bar, he was the life of the social cirele and gave early promise of success in the vocation he had chosen.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 45

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