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 46
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91
The esteem in which he was held by his brother lawyers is indicated by the following resolutions adopted at the meeting of the New Haven County Bar held in his honor:
Resolved, That we regard with profound sorrow the death of Jocelyn P. Cleaveland, one of the junior mem- bers of the Bar, who, by God's all wise providence. has suddenly been called from our midst in the full vigor and energy of his early manhood ,while yet at the threshold of his professional life.
Resolved, That in the death of our late brother. this Bar has lost a diligent student, a genial and social mem- ber, and a conscientious gentleman, who by his earnest application and strict attention to his professional duties, bid fair to become an able lawyer.
Mr. Cleaveland was never married. In addition to his mother and brother, above referred to, he is survived by his sister, Mrs. Robert L. Rice, of Granby, Conn. A younger brother, Foster Wild Cleaveland, died in infancy in 1856. His father died in 1889.
JUDGE LIVINGSTON WARNER CLEAVE- LAND, LL. B., M. L., has been a member of the New Haven County Bar for about twenty-one years and Judge of Probate for the District of New Ha- ven for the past seven years.
Born January 31, 1860, in South Egremont, Berkshire Co., Mass., Judge Cleaveland is a son of the late Rev. James Bradford and Elizabeth H. (Jocelyn) Cleaveland, and is descended on both sides from prominent and historic New England an- cestry. The direct line of descent on the father's side is from Gov. William Bradford, the historian of the Plymouth Colony, and on his mother's from John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley and the parents of the latter, all passengers on the "Mayflower" in 1620.
Moses Cleveland, from whom Judge Cleaveland is descended, was the first American ancestor of the Cleaveland family. He came from Ipswich, in the county of Suffolk, England, in 1635, locating in Woburn, Mass .: married Ann, daughter of Ed- ward Winn, and died about 1701. Several of his sons settled in what is now Canterbury, Conn., about the close of the seventeenth century, and to them many of the name in Connecticut trace their ancestry. Moses Cleveland's son. Samuel. from whom Judge Cleaveland is descended, was one of the seven who founded the first church at Canter- bury June 13, 1711.
Our subject's father, Rev. James B. Cleaveland, who died in 1889, was a Congregational clergyman
Livingston Whileavelana?
197
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
of talent and courage. He was pastor over churches in Connecticut for many years, having been previously pastor of the Congregational Church in South Egremont, Mass. James B. Cleaveland graduated from Yale in 1847, and from Yale Seminary several years later. By common ancestry Judge Cleaveland is related, paternally, to three Presidents of the United States, John Ad- anis, John Quincy Adams and Grover Cleveland, and to one Connecticut governor, Gov. Chauncey F. Cleveland, the latter being also descended from Moses Cleveland.
Judge Cleaveland's mother is a woman of cul- ture and a poetess of recognized ability, her poem "No Sects in Heaven" having been widely read in both this country and England. Her father, Na- thaniel Jocelyn, was a noted portrait painter and engraver and founder of the National Bank Note Engraving Co. In 1844 he won the gold palette given as a prize for the best portrait by a Connecti- cut artist. A sketch of Mr. Jocelyn's life appears elsewhere in this work.
Judge Cleaveland is related, maternally, by com- mon ancestry. to the illustrious Trumbull family, which furnished Connecticut with three chief mag- istrates, including Washington's "Brother Jona- tlian," the first Gov. Trumbull.
Judge Cleaveland was admitted to the Connecti- cut Bar at New Haven in 1881, at the time of his graduation from the Law Department of Yale with the degree of LL. B. In the year 1887-88, while practicing his profession, he took graduate work at Yale, receiving the degree of M. L. from the Uni- versity in 1888. He was engaged in the general practice of law until his election to the Probate Bench, in 1894. He has always been a Republican in politics and is the only Republican who has ever been honored with an election to the Probate Judge- ship for the District of New Haven, with the excep- tion of Hon. Francis Wayland, now Dean of the Law Department of Yale University, who was elected just after the close of the Civil war. The Probate District over which Judge Cleaveland pre- sides comprises the city of New Haven and all ad- joining towns, and is the most important district in the State. The term is two years. In this Dem- ocratic stronghold our subject has been elected four times, the first time by over one thousand plurality, although his popular competitor had held the office for eight years and had carried the previous election by about five thousand majority. In 1896 Judge Cleaveland was re-elected by a majority of over three thousand and he was again re-elected in 1898. in which year he was the only candidate on the Republican ticket to carry the city of New Haven. In 1900, at the Presidential election, he was again elected to the Judgeship. At this election Brvan carried the city. The normal Democratic plurality in the city was over fifteen hundred, but the Judge, running far ahead of any other candidate on the Republican ticket, National, State or local, carried
the city by cleven hundred and the district by over twenty-two hundred. His first election of signifi- cance to public office was in 1890, when he was elected to represent the Tenth ward in the Board of Councilmen of the city of New Haven for the year 1891. In 1891 he was re-elected for the year 1892. During both years he served on the commit -. tee on Ordinances. In the year 1891 he was chosen by the Board of Councilmen as its Republican rep- restative on the Board of Finance for the city of New Haven. For a number of years Judge Cleave- land has been the only commissioner of deeds in New England, outside of Boston, for all the States and territories and the principal Canadian prov- inces.
Socially Judge Cleaveland is a member of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants ; has been the presiding officer of Yale Conclave, Im- proved Order Heptasophs, in the supreme body of which fraternal order he served as a member of the Supreme Committee on Laws in 1894-96; for years has been a member of the Young Men's Republican Club, of New Haven; for fifteen years one of the directors of the local Young Men's Christian As- sociation, of which for several years he has been chairman of the Educational Department : and is also a member of the executive committee of the State Association. For thirteen years he has been su- perintendent of the English Hall Sunday-school, of which he had previously been assistant superin- tendent for four years. In 1900 he was elected president of the New Haven Congregational Club and has twice filled the position of president of the Men's Club of the United Church.
The Judge is unmarried and lives with his mother in New Haven. His sister, Mrs. Robert L. Rice, resides in Granby, Conn. His brother, Jocelyn P. Cleaveland, who was also a New Haven attorney, died in 1881, and reference is made to the sketch of his life, found elsewhere in this bi- ographical record, for ancestral lines not repeated here.
WHITNEY. The name of Whitney has been a familiar one in England since the Norman Con- quest. The first Whitney was a son or grandson of Sir Turstin, one of the Conqueror's Knights, and standard bearer at the battle of Hastings. The early Lords of Whitney made themselves famous by their invasion of Wales. In 1284 King Edward I granted a "free warren" to Sir Eustace de Why- teneye, and in 1368 Robert de Whitney journeyed to Milan in company with the Duke of Clarence. Twenty years later Sir Robert Whitney negotiatedl a treaty in Flanders, was a member of Parliament in 1391. was Royal Commissioner to France in 1303. Knight Marshal to Ireland in 1394. and was killed at the "capture of Edmund Mortimer" in 1402. In 1404 Robert Whitney, doubtless a son of the fore- going Robert, was granted Clifford Castle and the Lordships of Clifford and Glasbury. Several
198
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Knights, ancestors of the Whitneys of to-day, gave up their lives on the field of Agincourt in 1415. In 1455, James I. sent Sir Eustace Whitney to Wales, as Royal Commissioner charged with the arrest of Griffith Ap Nicholas.
The bard, Glyn Cothi, about 1470, dedicated a poem to Robert Whitney, on the occasion of the latter's marriage to Alice Vauglin. This Robert was twice married, his second wife being Constance Touchett, granddaughter of the Earl of Kent, and a descendant from the Norman and Plantagenet Kings, By this second marriage were born Robert's children. In 1540 a second royal line of descent was acquired for future generations by a marriage with the Baskervilles.
The Whitneys continued to be prominent at court, and upon the occasion of the coronation of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII nominated one of them Knight of the Bath. Once again before the emigra- tion to America was the representative of this noble family, lauded in immortal verse; John Whitney was an attendant upon Queen Elizabeth, and upon the occasion of his lamentable death Roger Ascham produced one of his best poems as a memorial.
For two hundred and sixty-five years the Whit- ney family, of which those now residing in New Haven constitute a part, has been identified with New England, and for more than one hundred years Eli Whitney, the inventor and manufacturer, of cot- ton-gin fame, his son and grandson, in turn, each bearing the Christian name of the honored father and grandfather, together with the families with which they have been allied by marriage, have been conspicuous in the annals of New Haven.
John Whitney, the emigrant ancestor of the New Haven family under consideration was born in 1589, in England, and dwelt in the parish of Isleworth- on-the-Thames from May. 1619. to January, 1623-4. and came from London to Watertown, Mass., in 1635. His first wife. Elinor, died in 1659 and he died in 1673, both in Watertown.
From this John Whitney, Eli Whitney, of New Haven, president of the New Haven Water Co., and a leading business man and citizen of that city, is a descendant in the ninth generation, his line of descent being through John (2). Nathaniel. Nathan- iel (2), Nathaniel (3), Eli, Eli (2), and Eli (3).
(II) John Whitney (2). son of John, the emi- grant ancestor, born in 1620, in England, married in 1642, Ruth, daughter of Robert Reynolds, of Water- town, Wethersfield and Boston, and resided in Watertown. He died in 1692.
(III) Nathaniel Whitney. son of John (2), born in February, 1646, in Waterbury, married in 1673, Sarah Hager, who died in 1746. He resided in Weston, Mass., and died in 1732.
(IV) Nathaniel Whitney (2). son of Nathaniel, born in 1675, in Watertown, married in 1695. Mercy Robinson and lived in Watertown. She died in 1740, and he died in 1730.
(V) Nathaniel Whitney (3), son of Nathaniel
(2), born in 1696, married in 1721, Mary Child, and settled in Westboro. Both died in 1776.
(VI) Eli Whitney, son of Nathaniel (3), bap- tized in 1740, married (first) in 1765, Elizabeth Fay, who died in 1777. He was born and always resided in Westboro, where he was a prominent man. He saw active service in the war of the Revolution as a member of Capt. Baker's company. He died in 1807.
(VII) Eli Whitney (2), son of Eli, and the grandfather of Eli Whitney, president of the New Haven Water Company was born Dec. 8, 1765, in Westboro, Mass. During the Revolutionary war, as a boy, he was engaged in making nails by hand. Subsequently, by his industry as an artisan and by teaching, he was able to defray his expenses at Yale, where he was graduated in 1792. In the same year he went to Georgia under an engagement as a private tutor, but on arriving there found that the place had been filled. He then accepted the in- vitation of the widow of Gen. Nathaniel Greene to make her place at Mulberry Grove, on the Savannah river, his home while he studied law. Several articles that he had devised for Mrs. Greene's con- venience gave her great faith in his inventive power, and when some of her visitors regretted that there could be no profit in the cultivation of the green seed-cotton, which was considered the best variety. owing to the great difficulty or separating it from the seed, she advised them to apply to Whitney, "who," she said, "could make anything." A pound of green seed-cotton was all that a negro woman could, at that period, clean in a day. Mr. Whitney up to that time had seen neither the raw cotton nor the cotton seed, but he at once procured some cotton, from which the seeds had been removed, although with trouble, as it was not the season of the year for the cultivation of the plant, and began to work out his idea of the cotton-gin. He was occupied for. some months in constructing his machine, during which he met with great difficulty, being compelled to draw the necessary ironwire himself, as he could obtain none in Savannah, and to manufacture his own iron tools. Near the end of 1792, he succeeded in making a gin, of which the principle and mechan- ism are exceedingly simple. Its main features are a cylinder four feet long and five inches in diameter. upon which is set a series of circular saws half an inch apart and projecting two inches above the sur- face of the revolving cylinder. A mass of cotton in the seed, separated from the cylinder by a steel grat- ing, is brought in contact with the numerous teeth in the cylinder. These teeth catch the cotton while playing between the bars, which allow the lint, but not the seed, to pass. Beneath the saws is a set of stiff brushes on another cylinder, revolving in an opposite direction, which brush off from the saw teeth the lint that these have just pulled from the seed. There is also a revolving fan for producing a current of air to throw the light and downy lint that is thus liberated to a convenient distance from the
1
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
199
revolving saws and brushes. Such are the essential principles of the cotton-gin as invented by Whitney, and as it is still used, but in various details and workmanship it has been the subject of many im- provements, the object of which has been to pick the cotton more perfectly from the seed, to prevent the teeth from cutting the staple, and to give greater regularity to the operation of the machine. By its use the planter was able to clean for market, by the labor of one man, one thousand pounds of cotton in place of five or six by hand. Mrs. Greene and Phineas Miller were the only ones permitted to see the machine, but rumors of it had gone through the State, and before it was quite finished, the building in which it was placed was broken into at night and the machine was carried off. Before he could com- plete his model and obtain patent, a number of ma- chines, based on his invention, had been surrepti- tiously made, and were in operation. In May, 1793. he formed a partnership with Mr. Miller, who had some property, and went to Connecticut to manu- facture the machines, but he became involved in continual trouble by infringement of his patent. In Georgia it was boldly asserted that he was not the inventor, but that something like it had been pro- duced in Switzerland, and it was claimed that the substitution of teeth cut in an iron plate for wire prevented an infringement on his invention. He had sixty law suits pending before he secured a verdict in his favor. In South Carolina the Legisla- ture granted him $50,000, which was finally paid after vexations delays and lawsuits. North Caro- lina allowed him a percentage for the use of each saw for five years, and collected and paid it over to the patentees in good faith, and Tennessee promised to do the same thing, but afterwards rescinded her contract. For years amid accumulated misfortunes. law suits wrongfully decided against him, the de- struction of his manufactory by fire, the industrious circulation of the report that his machine injured the fiber of the cotton, the refusal of Congress, on account of the Southern opposition. to allow the patent to be renewed, and the death of his partner, Mr. Whitney struggled on until he was convinced that he should never receive a just compensation for his invention. At the time of his invention, cotton was exported to the amount of only 189,500 pounds, while in 1803, owing to the use of his gin, it had risen to more than 41.000,000 pounds.
Despairing of ever gaining a competence, Mr. Whitney turned his attention in 1798 to the manu- facture of fire arms near New Haven, from which he eventually gained a fortune. He was the first manufacturer of fire arms to effect the division of labor to the extent of making it the duty of each workman to make interchangeable the parts of the thousands of arms in process of manufacture at the same time. This interchangeable system has now extended to the manufacture of watches, sewing machines, etc. His first contract was with the United States Government for 10,000 stand of
muskets, to be furnished in or about two years. For the execution of this order he took two years for preparation and eight more for completion.
gave bonds for $30,000, and was to receive $13.40 for each musket, or $134.000 in all. Immediately he began to build an armory at the foot of East Rock two miles from New Haven, in the village of Whit- neyville, where, through the successive administra- tions, from that of John Adams, repeated contracts for the supply of arms were made and fulfilled to the entire approbation of the government. The construction of his armory, and even of the com- monest tools which were devised by him for the prosecution of the business in a manner peculiar to himself, evinced the fertility of his genius and the precision of his mind. The buildings became the model by which the national armories were after- wards arranged, and many of his improvements were taken to other establishments and have become common property. Owing to his unpleasant experi- ences with patent laws, he never applied for patents on any of these inventions. His improvements in the manufacture of arms laid this country under per- manent obligations by augmenting the means of na- tional defense. Several of his inventions have been applied to other manufactures of iron and steel, and added to his reputation. He established a fund of $500 at Yale, the interest of which is expended in the purchase of books on mechanical and physical science. Robert Fulton said that "Arkwright, Watt and Whitney were the three men that did the most for mankind of any of their contemporaries," and Macaulay said : "What Peter the Great did to make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin has more than equaled in its relation to the power and progress of the United States."
"In person Mr. Whitney was considerably above the ordinary size, of a dignified carriage, and of an open, manly, and agreeable countenance. In New Haven he was universally esteemed. Many of the prominent citizens of the place supported him in his undertakings, and he inspired all whom he met with a similar confidence. Throughout the community and in foreign lands, he was known and honored as a benefactor of the race. With all the Presidents of the United States, from the beginning of the government. he enjoyed a personal acquaint- ance, and his relations with the leading men of the country were unimpaired by political revolutions." His most remarkable trait of character was a great power of mechanical invention. He was reasonably patient. His mind wrought with precision rather than with rapidity. His aim was steady. He never abandoned a half-accomplished effort in order to make trial of a new and foreign idea.
In January, 1817, Mr. Whitney was married to Henrietta Frances Edwards, born in June, 1790, who lived until April, 1870. She was the daughter of Hon. Pierpont Edwards, who graduated at Princeton College in 1768, was a lawyer in New Haven, Conn., soldier in the Revolution, member of
200
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
the Continental Congress, and judge of the United States Court for Connecticut at the time of his death. Mr. Edwards was frequently a member of the Connecticut Legislature, was the first grand- master of the Masonic fraternity in Connecticut. His father, Rev. Jonathan Edwards, was president of Princeton College, New Jersey. Mr. Whitney's children were: Frances E., born Nov. 23, 1817, married in 1842, Charles L. Chaplain. She died May 7, 1849. (2) Elizabeth F. (3) Eli is referred to farther on. (4) Susan E. born in January, 1821, died in 1823. The father of these died Jan. 8, 1825.
Eli Whitney (3), son of Eli (2), and the father of Eli Whitney (4), president of the New Haven Water Co., was born Nov. 24, 1820, in New Haven, where he attended a private school, and was pre- pared for College. He attended Yale one year, and was graduated from Princeton College in the class of 1841, and the following year he took up his fa- ther's business, that of the manufacture of fire arms for the United States government. In 1856 he ceased this branch of his manufacturing business, but resumed it again at the breaking out of the Civil war in 1861, and continued it until 1866. The Whitney Arms Co., of which until recent years he was president, has manufactured thousands of muskets, rifles and revolvers of the most improved models. The company has also made many thou- sands of military arms for foreign governments, in- cluding muzzle-loading. breech-loading, magazine and repeating rifles. He was appointed one of the commissioners of the English Exposition of 1862. From 1859 to 1861 he constructed the New Haven Water Works, and much of the work was done on his own credit, though built on contract for the New Haven Water Co., which organization he created. Mr. Whitney made many improvements in fire- arms of all sorts and patented them, and made improvements in machinery for making arms. He was on the Republican electoral ticket in Connect- icut as Presidential elector at large in the November election of 1892. In 1869 he received an honorary degree of MI. A. from Yale.
On June 17, 1845. Mr. Whitney was married at Utica, N. Y., to Sarah Perkins Dalliba, and to the union were born children as follows: Eli is referred to at greater length farther on ; Susan Huntington, born Aug. 1, 1849, married in 1873, Rev. Chauncey Bunce Brewster, late rector of Grace Church, Brook- lyn Heights, now Bishop of Connecticut. her death occurring May 25. 1885 : and Henrietta Edwards. The father, Eli (3), died Aug. 19, 1895.
ELI WHITNEY (4). son of Eli (3), the fourth of the name in succession, was born Jan. 22, 1847, in the city of New Haven, which has since been his home and the field of his business operations. He attended the private schools and later entered Yale College from which he was graduated in the class of 1869. He has held various public offices and most creditably and efficiently discharged the duties of each. He has been largely identified with various
enterprises and is one of the city's prominent citizens and leading business men. For years he has been president of the New Haven Water Co .. which, as stated in the foregoing, his father created and built, and is also president of the West Haven Water Co. He is president of the board of education ; president of the General Hospital Society of Connecticut ; ex- president of the New Haven Horticultural Society ; president of the Tontine Company; vice-president of New Haven Colony Historical Society; director in the City Bank of New Haven ; trustee Connecti- cut Savings Bank, New Haven ; trustec of the New Haven Trust Company, and also in a number of charitable organizations. He is a member of the Quinnipiack, Union League and Graduates Clubs of New Haven ; Century, University, Yale and Engin- eers Clubs of New York : Society of Colonial Wars : Sons of the American Revolution : The Society of the War of 1812, and is also a member of the Yale Corporation.
On Oct. 22, 1873, Mr. Whitney was married to Sarah Sheffield Farnam, born Sept. 27, 1850. and the union has been blessed with children as follows : Anne Farnam, born Sept. 29, 1874, married in .1898. Thomas M. Debevoise, a lawyer of New York, and has two children, Eli Whitney (born in Decem- ber, 1899) and Catherine (born in June, 1901) : Henrietta Edwards, born Feb. 27, 1876: Sarah Tracy, born Sept. 18, 1877, married April 26, 1900, Dr. Leonard C. Sanford, and died Feb. 19, 1901, leaving an infant daughter, Sally Whitney; Eliza- beth Fay, born April 3, 1879: Louise Huntington, born Feb. 20, 1881 ; Susan Brewster, born March 16, 1885; and Frances Pierpont, born Aug. 19, 1891.
CHARLES C. SMITH, one of the most prom- inent business citizens of New Haven, has by his own energy and industry gained a position of re- spect and prominence.
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.