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 6

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 6

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).

Judge Bronson's children are: Thomas S .. a physician in New Haven ; J. Harmer, of New Ila- ven; Sarah Frances; Ezekiel S .; and Marion de Forest.

SCOVILL (J. M. L. Scovill was the first of the family to adopt the two "I's" in the spelling of the name). Among the old and leading families of Waterbury from its first settlement, are those bear- ing the name of Scovill. The names of James Mitchell Lamson and William H. Scovill, and the memory of their useful, noble and grand lives will long be treasured by the citizens of Waterbury. They laid the foundation on which the great indus- trial structure of the Waterbury of today rests. These brothers descended from Sergeant John Sco- vil, one of the original settlers of the town, and from him were in the fifth generation, their lines being through Lieut. William Scovil, Rev. James Scovil and James.

(I) Sergeant John Scovil, the son of John Sco- vil, of Haddam, married in 1693, Hannah, daughter of Obediah Richards, and became one of the orig- inal settlers of Waterbury.

(II) Lieut. William Scovil, the son of Sergeant John Scovil, born in 1703, married in 1729, Hannah, daughter of John Richards.

(III) Rev. James Scovil, son of Lieut. William Scovil, born Jan. 27, 1732-33, married in 1762, Amy, daughter of Capt. George Nichols. Dr. Scovil was graduated from Yale College in 1757. In 1759 he became the rector of the Episcopal church, in the missioin field at Waterbury, Northbury, and what is now Bristol, Conn. He made his residence at Waterbury, and was the town's first resident rector. After his labors of nearly thirty years in this field, he removed in 1788 to New Brunswick. becoming rector of the church at Kingston. He died at that point Dec. 19, 1808, in the fiftieth year of his min- istry.

(IV) James Scovil, son of Rev. James Scovil, was born March 19, 1764, in Waterbury, and on Nov. 16, 1788, married Alathea, daughter of Mitchi- ell Lamson, a merchant of Woodbury, Conn. He became a prominent citizen of the town, was a large land owner, acted as trying justice, and was always known as Esquire Scovil. During the war of 1812 he established and carried on a woolen mill. He was a man of fine presence, and much dignity of manner and character. He died Nov. 26, 1825. He was the only member of his father's family who remained in Waterbury on their removal to New Brunswick.

JAMES MITCHELL LAMSON SCOVILL, son of James Scovil, was born Sept. 4, 1789, in Waterbury, where he attended the district schools. When seventeen he began clerking in his father's store. In ISII, associated with David Hayden and Frederick Leay- enworth, he commenced the manufacture of gilt and brass buttons. In 1827 William H. Scovill pur- chased the interest of Dr. Leavenworth and Mr. Hayden, and the firm became J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill. The business under both firms from the start had been modestly successful, and the new firm continued to prosper until the burning of their

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHIICAL RECORD.

factory in 1829. They rebuilt and their business in- creased ; some ten or more years later S. M. Buck- ingham and Abraham Ives became interested in the button business with the Scovills, and the firm name changed to that of Scovill & Co. In the meantime the rolled brass and plated metal part of the busi- ness of Scovill Brothers was being rapidly devel- oped, and this, which had assumed an important in- terest, they continued under the name of J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill. The brothers also associated themselves with John Buckingham, under the name of Scovill & Buckingham, in the making of patent brass butts. About this time they began the manu- facture of daguerreotype plates, which was soon developed into an extensive business. In January, 1850, a joint stock company was formed under the name of Scovill Manufacturing Co., into which all the interests of the foregoing were merged, some of their employes being admitted as stock holders. Of this corporation the Scovills owned a majority of the stock, the capital of which was at the start $250,000, and some years later was increased to $300,000.

Dr. Bronson in his history of Waterbury ( 1858) says :

The present manufacturing interests of Waterbury are perhaps more indebted to Lamson Scovill (Mr. Scovill was generally called by the last of his given names) than to any other man. He was bold. energetic and sagacious. He had enlarged views and that degree of confidence in the future which insured success. So soon as he got strength of his own, he was ready to lend assistance to others. Many enterprises have been carried forward to a successful result by his relations, but his friends in the largest sense shared in his financial prosperity. He was foremost in all the improvements of his native village. His own generous impulses he did not hesitate to follow, even when indulgence was expensive. He was a large hearted man, with social, kindly feeling. Few persons have been equally respected or more beloved. He was a mem- ber of St. John's Church, of which he was an important benefactor. His generosity and that of his hrother Will- iam founded a professorship in Washington College which is named after the donors.

Below are given some extracts from obituary notices of Mr. Scovill which appeared in one of the Waterbury papers at the time of his death :

Those who remember him in those early days, will bear witness to his native kindness of disposition. the manly traits of his character : an infusion of a certain mag- nanimity which won for him the love of his associates that made him almost their idol-high-toned qualities that never forsook him under any circumstances, and which were an index of that honorable and useful career that has since associated his name with all that is good, up- right. enterprising and practicable. not only in the com- munity in which he lived, was born and died, but his in- fluence has been as broadcast. as his views more noble. unselfish and expanded. On reviewing the gradual steps by which he rose to the lofty eminence which he attained among his fellowmen, we have practical commentary of what can be achieved by a single individual who steadily pursues the well trodden path of industry, guided by per- severance, integrity and prudence. With a well balanced mind. without any pretensions to brilliancy. there was a massiveness in his intellect which enabled him to grapple with circumstances, to concentrate and apply the means of

success to a remarkable degree. He would perhaps be classed by some as rather a slow thinker, but when he made up his mind to do a thing, it was as good as accom- plished. Though progressive, he was not speculative. He required to be convinced before he adopted a course of action, that done no more was to be said; and as in his business character, so was it in his general intercourse in the ordinary dinties of society. Never obtrusive, he was ever forward in every enterprise that would promote the public good, lending not only his personal influence, but lavish with those means with which fortune had favored him. He took a lively interest in the politics of the day, yet had no aspiration for office, though elected at various times to represent his native town in both branches of the legislature, rather at the intercession of his constituents than from his own choice. In his private relations he was the soul of honor, never forgetting a favor or neglecting a friend. As he lived so he died, the same Lamson Scovill, as fresh in his feelings and sympathies as distinguished him in his boyhood.

On Oct. 9, 1849, Mr. Scovill was married to Mrs. Sarah A. Morton, daughter of William H. Merriman, of Watertown. Their children were: James M. L., born Sept. 3, 1850, died at the age of eight years; Sarah A., born Feb. 15, 1852, mar- ried Joseph T. Whittlesey, of New Haven, and died Dec. 15, 1877 ; Henry W., born Nov. 11, 1853, mar- ried Ellen Whittaker, daughter of T. R. Hyde, of Westerly, Rhode Island.

James Mitchell Lamson Scovill died May 6, 1857, and at the time of his funeral the factories. stores, and public places of Waterbury were closed.

WILLIAM HENRY SCOVILL, son of James Scovill, was born July 27, 1796, and passed his early years on his father's farm and in his store. While in his teens he attended for a time the Cheshire Academy, then taught by the Rev. Dr. Bronson, being there in the winter of 1812-13. In 1814 he became a clerk in a store in New Haven, first for a Mr. Brush, then for a Mr. Peek. At the age of twenty he opened a store in Waterbury, Mr. Peck, his former employer, furnishing the capital. For years he abandoned the business, it proving an unsuccessful venture. Following this period he passed two years as a clerk for his uncle, William K. Lamson, in the store at Berwick, Penn. He then went to North Carolina, and for several years carried on a general country store, and also dealt in cotton at Turner's Cross Roads. Here he accumulated several thous- and dollars, and returning to Waterbury, joined his brother, J. M. L. Scovill, and purchased the in- terests in the metal button business. previously held by Dr. Leavenworth and Mr. Hayden. Mr. Scovill for many years prior to his death, which occurred March 27, 1854, at Charleston. S. C., whither he had gone for the recovery of his health, filled a large. space and exercised a wide influence in the com- munity in which he lived. As has been said of him :

As has been said of him, he was a sagacious man, of comprehensive views, who assisted his brother in conduct- ing one of the most extensive and prosperous manufac- turing establishments in Waterbury. He was a man of in- telligence, of gracious sympathies and inflexible principle. Ilis wealth he distributed with a free hand in the way of both public and private charity. To every good cause he

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

was ready to give material aid. Ile was emphatically a public benefactor and his loss was a public calamity. He was one of the most active and influential members of St. Jolin's Church, Waterbury; was senior warden for many years, and was among the foremost in the work of erect- ing the beautiful edifice in which the society worshipped at the time of his death. Throughout the State he was known as the liberal patron of the church and its insti- tutions.

On the death of J. M. L. Scovill, a writer in one of the Waterbury papers thus referred to the two Scovill brothers :

Never were two men better calculated for each other- both were actuated by the highest impulses of integrity. and their qualifications though different were so happily blended, such was the confidence between them, that in all matters of business they were ouly known as one. Both at the time of their death were identified with nearly every kindred establishment in Waterbury, and one can hardly turn his eye without being reminded of their joint participation in the progress and advancement of their native city-the welfare of which formed one of the lead- ing objects of their ambition.

William H. Scovill was twice married. On July 2, 1827, he wedded Eunice Ruth Davies, daugh- ter of Hon. Thomas J. Davies, of Black Lake. N. Y. "She was a woman of many virtues, of tincommon intelligence and great force of character, and died much lamented, of pulmonary consumption. Nov. 25, 1839." Mr. Scovill married (second ) March 22, 1841, Rebecca H., daughter of Hon. Nathan Smith, of New Haven. To the first union were born four children, two of whom, Mrs. F. J. Kings- bury and Mrs. William E. Curtis, survive. The child born to the second marriage is William H. Scovill. now a resident of Hudson, N. Y. Mrs. Rebecca H. Scovill died Aug. 4, 1854.

HON. EDWARD ISAAC SANFORD. LL. B., long a distinguished member of the New Haven Bar and who was in public life for many years, twenty- four of which he served as Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut, was a representative in both paternal and maternal lines of old and respected families of New Haven.

Born July 4, 1820, in New Haven, Judge San- ford was the son of Elihu and Susan ( Howell ) San- ford, the former a much esteemed and successful merchant of that place and his personal character- isties were those that might naturally have been in- herited from such ancestors. Thomas Sarford. the first American ancestor of the branch of the family. came to Boston in 1631 : in 1634 he was in Dorches- ter and in 1639 in Milford, Conn., where he died in 1681.

Edward I. Sanford was fitted for college in the Fairfield Academy. Fairfield, and the Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven. In 1843 he entered Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1847. Immediately afterward he entered Yale Law School and was graduated therefrom with the de- gree of I.L. B. in 1849. After spending some time n the office of Henry White, Esquire, in further

study under his direction, he opened an office for himself in New Haven and commenced the practice of law. Although he devoted himself assiduously to his profession, without aiming at distinctions out- side of it, he soon attracted and steadily thereafter maintained and increased the favorable regard of his fellow citizens, who from time to time called him to the discharge of public duties. In 1853 he was elected member of the common council of New Ilaven. From 1858 to 1860 and again from 1863 to 1866 he was Judge, or Recorder, as it was then styled, of the Circuit Court of that city. The dignity and ability with which he administered the duties of his office are yet remembered with great respect by those lawyers of the present day who then prac- ticed before him. In 1864 and again in 1865 Judge Sanford was elected to the State Senate from the New Haven District. During the latter part of 1868 and the carly part of 1860 he was an instruc- tor in Yale Law School and rendered valuable service in securing that re-organization of the school which led to its present great and growing prosper- ity. In 1867 he was appointed Judge of the Su- perior Court for the term of eight years, beginning July 27 of that year. By successive re-appoint- ments in 1875 and 1883 he was contintied in office until July 27, 1891.

"His work upon the Bench of the Superior Court," says Hon. Henry B. Harrison, who pre- pared an obituary sketch of Judge Sanford, from which much of the personal matter of this article is taken, "for that long period of twenty-four years, was substantially the work of his life. and to it he devoted with conscientious and laborious care all his energies. He was not ambitious for the glitter of public office and never sought it, but he learned to like his duties as a Judge of the Superior Court and he was content to limit his career to the faith- ful performance of them. Ilis personal character was blameless. Everybody who knew him liked him. His friends stood fast to him and he stood fast to them. His hand was open and generous. His tastes were eminently domestic : his heart was always in his home."

On June 19, 1849, Mr. Sanford was married to Miss Sarah Jane, daughter of Hanford Lyon. of Bridgeport, and to the union were born two chil- dren, as follows: Edward I .. Jr., a lawyer of New York; and Fannie S., who married Lewis Hotel- kiss, of New Haven, and has one son, Sanford Lewis Hotchkiss.

By the close of Judge Sanford's career on the Bench, in 1891, his health had become seriously im- paired, and it continued to grow worse until his death, July 13. 1803. On March 4. 1870. he form- ally joined the Center Church, of New Haven, with his wife and daughter, and he died in the faith.

At a meeting of the New Haven County Bar. held two days after Judge Sanford's death. appropri- ate resolutions were unanimously adopted. from which the following is taken :

Eduvar de 1. San forda

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPIIICAL RECORD.

To perpetuate our high appreciation of the character and qualities of the late Judge Edward I. Sanford, and of the loss to us and to the community at large involved in his death, the Bar of New Haven County now resolve :

That as a man, his friendships were many, broad. cath- olie and appreciative. That as a judge, his courtesy was unfailing, his patience unwearied. his learning and dili- gence always mastering the complicated questions arising in the discharge for many years of his duties as a Judge of the Superior Court.

That in Judge Sanford there was the true friend and the upright and capable judge, and we mourn his death as the loss of a personal friend, and we deplore his illness and consequent death as a public misfortune.

Ex-Gov. Harrison in closing his obituary notice of Judge Sanford characterized him as "A high- minded gentleman, a good citizen, a faithful friend, a loving husband and father and a just judge."

Mrs. Sarah Jane (Lyon ) Sanford, wife of Judge Edward I. Sanford, and daughter of the late Hon. Hanford and Hettie A. (Thompson) Lyon, was born in Bridgeport, Conn., and died Nov. 4, 1901, at her home, No. 538 Chapel street, New Haven. She was a descendant on both sides from early Con- necticut families, the Thompsons, of Stratford, and the Lyons, from Easton. Hanford Lyon was born in 1795 in Easton, son of Nehemiah W. Lyon, a patriot of the Revolution, who lived to the remarka- ble age of nearly one hundred and one years, while his son, Hanford, reached nearly eighty-five years, dying in 1879 in Bridgeport, where he had been a leading citizen and prominent business man through a long life time. The town of Easton was settled about 1757 by inhabitants from Fairfield, among the early settlers being Stephen, Daniel, Abram, Thomas, Josiah and Nehemiah Lyon, who were probably the descendants of Richard Lyon, who was in Fairfield as early as 1649, or of Thomas Lyon, a brother of Richard. Thomas bought property in Fairfield in 1654, but sold it in 1675 and removed to Greenwich.

HON. RUFUS S. PICKETT, lawyer and form- er Judge of the City Court, New Haven, is one of the city's esteemed and respected citizens, who through the force of his own efforts has risen to position and influence in his profession and citi- zenship.

Judge Pickett was born in the town of Ridge- field, Conn., Feb. 28. 1820, son of Rufus H. and Betsey ( Parsons) Pickett, and in several lines comes of Revolutionary stock and a sturdy New England ancestry of the Colonial period. His par- ents were born, the father about 1798, and the mother April 20, 1794, and died, the former in 1872, and the latter June 13. 1868. To them were born five children, namely : William H., Rufus S., Isabella, Francis, and Edwin. The last named was killed while fighting in the Union Army at the battle of Gettysburg. Judge Pickett's grandfather Abraham Parsons, born Feb. 19. 1764, was a farmer of Redding, Conn., and served as a soldier in the Continental Army in the war of the Revolution, and

was a United States pensioner. Mr. Parsons mar- ried Urana Starr, of Danbury, Conn., whose father, Benjamin Starr, was also a soldier of the Revolu- tion and yielded up his life in defense of his coun- try, dying en route home on sick leave of absence with camp fever, Sept. 3, 1775. He had been in camp near White Plains. Urana (Starr) Parsons, the Judge's grandmother, was a native of Danbury, Conn., born March 23. 1765, and died there Sept. 30, 1848, in the eighty-fourth year of her age, and her husband, Abraham Parsons, passed away March 16, 1852, in Ridgefield, Conn. Benjamin Starr was a resident of Mill Plain in the western part of Danbury, perhaps within bounds of Ridgebury Parish. Ile had descended from Dr. Comfort Starr, the emigrant settler who came from Ashford, Coun- ty Kent, England, to New England as early as 1638, the year in which he purchased land in Dux- bury, Mass., and was of Cambridge. From this ancestor Judge Pickett's lineage is through Dr. Thomas ( born in England), Capt. Josiah ( born in Charlestown, Mass., a resident of Danbury and founder of that branch of the Starr family), Capt. John, Lieut. Jonathan, Benjamin, Urana (Starr) Parsons and Betsey ( Parsons) Pickett.

Judge Pickett attended the common schools of his native town and was there prepared for college in Hugh Bank's Academy. Owing to the failing health of his father, at eighteen. Rufus S. abandoned his studies and devoted himself to the management of his father's business, continuing so to do for six years. At this period in his life, 1854, he went to New Haven, where for seven and a half years he was in the employ of the N. Y. & N. H. R. R. Com- pany, engaged in building and repairing locomo- tives when it was a single track road and doing its business with twenty-four engines only.

In the Lincoln campaign of 1860, as now, an ardent Republican, Mr. Pickett was encouraged by his friend and former schoolmate, Cyrus Northrop, then a professor in Yale University and afterwards President of the University of Minnesota, to take an active part in the same. He answered some of the numerous calls for speakers in New Haven and adjoining towns, speaking in company with Professor Northrop, Hon. N. D. Sperry, now Con- gressman from the New Haven district. John Wood- ruff and others. On the coming into power of the Lincoln administration and the appointment of the late James F. Babcock, collector of the Port of New Haven, Mr. Pickett received the appointment through Mr. Babcock of inspector of customs. which office with that of weigher and gauger he held for several years, and while in office and performing his duties faithfully. he resumed his studies. He entered Yale Law School, and at the end of the first year took the Jewell prize as essayist. Ile was graduated with good standing in 1873. and en- tered upon the general practice of law in New llaven. In 1877 he was appointed City Attorney and for six years faithfully and efficiently discharg-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ed his duties as such. Ile received, in 1885, by ap- pointinent, the office of Assistant Judge, and in 1887 Judge of the City Court of New Haven. He heard some of the early boycott cases, and prepared opin- ions on them, which had a wide circulation in the country, and which have been substantially con- firmed by the higher courts of several States.

Judge Pickett's religious connections are with the Congregational Church. He is a member of . the Society of the Sons of the American Revolu- tion.

Early in life Judge Pickett was married, and had three sons and two daughters. His younger son, Edwin, is a member of the New Haven County Bar.

ELTON. Conspicuously prominent has been th name of Elton in the history of Waterbury for the past three quarters of a century, as was it for that length of time previously in Watertown, where Drs. John and Samuel Elton, father and son, re- spectively, practiced medicine for fully seventy-five years. Early in the present century there came to Waterbury the late Hon. John Prince Elton, who became one of the active and successful promoters of the city's industries, and for many years was one of its most prominent manufacturers and leading citizens. While his son, the Hon. James Samuel Elton, former Senator, president of the Waterbury National Bank and of the Waterbury Brass Com- pany, has sustained the father's reputation.

James Samuel Elton, on his father's side, is in the seventh generation from John Elton, who early came to this country from Bristol, England, and settled in Middletown, Conn. The line of James S. Elton's descent is through Ebenezer Elton. Eben- ezer Elton (2), Dr. John Elton, Dr. Samuel Elton and John Prince Elton.

(II) Ebenezer Elton, son of John Elton, born in 1686, located in Branford, Connecticut.

(III) Ebenezer Elton (2), son of Ebenezer El- ton, born in 1712, married (first) Hannah Ward, of Middletown, Conn. She died in 1754. and Eben- ezer married (second) in January, 1755.

(IV) Dr. John Elton, son of Ebenezer Elton (2), born October 6. 1755. married Lucy Prince. He succeeded his brother Dr. James Elton in prac- tice, and for twenty-four years practiced medicine in Watertown. He died Oct. 9, 1800, and his wife passed away May 27. 18IT.

(V) Dr. Samuel Elton, son of Dr. John Elton. born Sept. 6. 1780, married Betsev, eldest daughter of Charles Merriman, of Watertown. Dr. Samuel Elton studied medicine for a time with his father. who purposed to give the son the best possible med- ical education, but death defeated his plans, and at the early age of eighteen the son, with little knowl- edge of medical works, commenced active practice which was never relaxed until old age and disease enforced it : his death occurred Dec. 8. 1858. "His conclusions were so uniformly correct that he early

grew into an extensive practice as consulting and ad- visory physician in all neighboring communities. He was kind and tender in feeling, but never profuse in expressions of sympathy ; plain, almost blunt, in language ; stern in outward demeanor, but when oc- casion permitted, jovial and playiul as a boy. No one was ever more endeared, or more perfectly se- cured in the confidence of his patients, than was Dr. Samuel Elton to the end. He acquired a handsome estate, which might have been doubled had he chosen to enforce the collection of very reasonable charges for his labors. Ile never took legal steps to collect a debt. He visited and cared for the poverty- stricken patient with all the assiduity he gave the wealthiest. Honesty, temperance and economy were with him cordial virtues."

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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 6

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