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 83
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The late John B. Carrington was born in 18II at Bethany, Conn., son of Alling and Nancy (At- wood) Carrington. In 1824 he left home and came to New Haven, and began an apprenticeship to the printing business in the newspaper office managed by Thomas G. Woodward, then one of the ablest Whig editors in Connecticut. Young Carrington served a full apprenticeship in the mechanical de- partment of the office, and in the meantime began writing articles for the paper on the topics of the day. Later on, for several years, he was engaged in a newspaper enterprise in Macon, Ga., but re- turned to New Haven and, in connection with Mr. Woodward, in 1835 began the publication of the Daily Herald, the first daily newspaper published in the State. Of this paper Mr. Carrington in 1845 was the sole publisher. The Journal and Courier of to-day is the outgrowth of the Herald, and few men in the newspaper business labored under greater difficulties to keep their paper alive than did the older Carrington, and in a season of strong com- petition and great business depression it was only
accomplished by his tact, energy, ability and per- sonal popularity. These qualities, combined with rare foresight, built up and established a great daily paper and made it a success. In 1849 Mr. Carrington formed a partnership with John B. Hotchkiss for the publication of the paper, and on Mr. Hotchkiss' retirement acquired the entire prop- 23
, erty, and later associated with him in the enter- prise his two sons, Edward T. and John B. Car- rington, Jr. The partnership was so continued un- til the death of Edward T., when another change was made, and the paper and business of the office again became conducted by a company of which John B. Carrington, Jr., was made president and treasurer.
Mr. Carrington was a successful newspaper man and a business man in a general sense, and citizen as well. He was a broad-minded, liberal gentleman, of irreproachable character and busi- ness integrity, and most careful and judicious in the conduct of his paper. He introduced into New Haven journalism a spirit of forbearance and cour- tesy toward men and newspapers of different politi- cal complexion or adverse views in measures of public interest. Personally he was affable and gen- ial, and his considerate treatment of public matters, giving fair treatment to all sides, gave great popu- larity to his paper. He possessed great tact along the line indicated, and was possessed, too, of a high order of judgment, which made him an excellent editor and newspaper man. "His editorial letters while in Europe in 1871 and 1872 were character- ized by a rare blending of polished diction, their writing showing an agreeable faculty of tell'ng in a straightforward manner all those things which came under his trained observation. He was fond of travel and of seeing nature in every aspect, and when on trips both abroad and in this country he ire- quently wrote most interesting articles for the Journal and Courier." From Europe, the West In- dies and Utah, his letters to his paper were filled with the best spirit of journalistic correspondence.
The political affiliations of Mr. Carrington were with the Republican party and parties.of which it was the outgrowth. During the Civil war his paper was loyal, constant and unflinching in its vigorous support of the Government. His religious connec- tions were with the First Congregational Church at New Haven. As a citizen he was enterprising and public spirited, his sympathies being elicited in all public improvements. So many years the editor and manager of one of the most successful journals in the State, Mr. Carrington left his impress for good on the community in which he so long and prominently figured. He became identified as early as 1848 in the manufacture of malleable iron, be- ing among the first to see the value of the material. There were very few enterprises started in New Haven along some years prior to the Civil war and following it that he did not assist both in giving advice, which was sought, and means. He was in- terested in the Bigelow Manufacturing Co., was a director in the first horse street railway company organized in New Haven and the State, in the New Haven County National Bank, the Grilley Screw Co., the Mansfield Elastic Frog Co., the New Haven Gas Light & Water Co., and also of the New
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Haven Palladium. For some years prior to 1849 Mr. Carrington published the New Englander, then edited by Theodore D. Woolsey, of Yale, and Rev. Leonard Bacon. Mr. Carrington acquired more than a competence.
On Sept. 12, 1838, Mr. Carrington was married to Harriet Hayes Trowbridge, who was born May 22, 1815, daughter of Capt. Roswell Trowbridge. a representative of a distinguished New Haven faniily, she being a descendant in the seventh gen- eration from Thomas Trowbridge, the common an- cestor of the Trowbridges in this country, and who emigrated from Taunton, Somersetshire, England, prior to 1636, in which year his name is of record as joining the church. He located in Dorchester, Mass., removed to New Haven, Conn., in 1638-39, and returned to England in 1644. From this emi- grant ancestor Mrs. (Trowbridge) Carrington's line of descent is through Thomas (2), Thomas (3), Daniel, Newman and Capt. Roswell Trow- bridge.
(II) Thomas Trowbridge (2), son of Thomas the emigrant. born in England in 1632, married (first) in 1657 Sarah, daughter of Henry Ruther- ford, who died in 1687. Mr. Trowbridge was an enterprising and successful West India merchant, and a man of note. He died in 1702.
(III) Thomas Trowbridge (3), son of Thomas (2), born in 1664, married in 1685 Mary, daughter of John Winston. She died in 1742, and he died in 1704. He was a planter and merchant.
(IV) Daniel Trowbridge, son of Thomas (3), born in 1703, married in 1731 Mehetabel, daugh- ter of Francis Brown. He died in 1752, and she in 1797.
(V) Newman Trowbridge, son of Daniel, born in 1738, married (second) in 1778 Widow Rebecca Cables, daughter of Thomas Dodd. He died in 1816, and she in 1808.
(VI) Capt. Roswell Trowbridge. son of New- man, born in 1784. married in 1813 Nancy, daugh- ter of Ezekiel Haves. Capt. Trowbridge was a mariner. He died in 1844, and his wife in 1857.
(VII) Harriet Trowbridge (Mrs. John B. Car- rington ).
To the marriage of Mr. Carrington and Har- riet Trowbridge came children as follows: Fran- ces E., born in 1839. died in 1843: Roswell T., born in 1841, died in 1843: Edward T .. born in 1843, died in 1883; Harriet F. was born in 1845: Emily A., in 1847; John Bennett, April 24, 1849: Har- riet T., in 1851 ; and William, born in 1855, died in 1856.
HENRY JAMES CHURCH, the oldest funeral director and undertaker in Meriden, was born in East Haven, New Haven county. Aug. 1. 1831, a son of James and Huldah ( Barnes ) Church, natives of Haddam and East Haven, respectively.
The remote ancestor of this family was Thomas
Church, who came from England in 1680 and lived and died in Plainfield, Conn. He was the grand- father of that Church who served in the Revolution- ary army and, when taken prisoner by the English and confined on their prison ship in New York harbor, escaped by swimming. This distinction he divides with only one other man. He was the grandfather of Henry James Church, was a farmer and spent his life in the town of Haddam.
Isaac Barnes, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Church, enlisted under Benedict Arnold in the Rev- olutionary army and marched from New Haven to Fort Ticonderoga. His powder horn is now in the possession of Andrew Stoper, of New Britain. Isaac Barnes was a farmer in the town of East Haven, and- his daughter, Huldah, and grandson, Henry J. Church, were born there in the house he built for his own home.
James Church, noted above, was a shoemaker, and the latter part of his business career was spent as a shoe merchant in the West Indies. He died in East Haven in 1839. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. His children were: Mary; Harriet, who is the widow of Horace Hart; Maria, widow of Edward Barton Lewis; Daniel M .; Julia, wife of John H. Andrews; George K., who went to Cali- fornia in 1849 and is supposed to have died there ; William, who died in California ; and Henry J. All the sons are deceased. except the youngest born, who is the subject of this article. The daughters survive.
Henry James Church was reared in East Ha- ven, New Britain and Meriden, where he reached manhood. In 1847 he began at Meriden an appren- ticeship of three years to the trade of cabinetmaker, which he mastered; he was engaged as clerk in a furniture store at the breaking out of the Civil war. In August, 1862, Mr. Church enlisted in Com- pany F. 15th Conn. V. I., and participated in the battle of Fredericksburg and the siege of Suffolk, after which he was assigned to the subsistence de- partment of the Army of the Potomac, 9th Army Corps, 2d Division, under Gen. Burnside, with which he remained until the beginning of 1863. when he was transferred to the District of North Carolina and continued with same until the close of the war. He was discharged July 8, 1865. Since his return to civil life our subject has fol- lowed his present business and has officiated at the funeral services of over six thousand people.
Mr. Church was married, in 1853. to Elizabeth, daughter of Luke T. and Elizabeth (Foster) Dra- per, of Monson, Mass. Of the five children born to this marriage but one survives, Louis H., who is associated with his father in business. He married Maude Lillian Marshall, of Brooklyn. N. Y., and has one daughter, Grace Huntington. Mr. Church and his family attend the services of the First M. E. Church. of Meriden. He is past commander of Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R .; has taken the Knight Templar degree in Masonry; is connected
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with the subordinate lodge in Meriden, of which he is past master; is enrolled in Silver City Lodge, No. 3, A. O. U. W .; was a charter member of Myrtle Lodge, K. of P., and is an honorary mem- ber of Meriden Center Lodge, No. 68, I. O. O. F., sharing this distinction with Charles Parker. At the present time he is holding the office of alderman of the Fourth ward of Meriden ; in politics he is a Republican.
SOLON BENJAMIN PERKINS, machinist, a native of New Haven county. was born Dec. II, 1832, in the Mount Carmel District of the town of Hamden, and has long been numbered among the respected citizens of Meriden. His grandfather, Amasa Perkins, was a native of Bethany. New Haven county, where he grew up on a farm, and where he married Esther Hitchcock. In early life he located at Cooperstown, Otsego Co., N. Y., and engaged in farming. After the birth of his eldest child, he returned to Connecticut and settled on a farm in Wallingford, near the Hamden line, where he built a home and passed the remainder of his days. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. Both he and his wife died on the farm in Wallingford and were buried in the north district of Hamden. Mr. Perkins was a Democrat of the old school, and was a member of the Congregational Church. All of his children, Lewis, Burr, Anna and Harriet, are now deceased. The elder daughter was the wife of Horace Hall, and the younger married William D. Hall, all of Wallingford.
Lewis Perkins was born in Butternuts (now Cooperstown), Otsego Co., N. Y., and came to Connecticut with his parents when an infant. He grew up on the Wallingford farm and attended the subscription schools of the time. After his mar- riage, he settled on a farm in the Mount Carmel district of Hamden, where he spent his life, and died at the age of sixty-three years. In addition to farming, he followed teaming and butchering. He was a stanch Democrat, and firm in support of his principles. For many years he served as justice of the peace, and was everywhere known as "Squire Perkins," and was also a notary public. In re- ligious connection he was a faithful member of the Congregational Church. He was married in Hamden to Lois Peck, a native of that town, daugh- ter of Benjamin Peck. She died in Hamden, and was buried beside her husband in the family ceme- tery, in the North District. Like her husband, she was a devoted member of the Congregational Church, and she was a faithful wife and mother. Their children were four in number, namely: Solon B .; Ellen, widow of Russell . Wilcox, of New Haven; Watson T., a resident of Wallingford : and Sarah, who died in infancy.
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Solon B. Perkins received such education as the district schools afforded, but has widely supple- mented this in the great university of experience and observation. He remained on the home farm
until sixteen years of age, when he started out to make his own way in the world. His first employ- ment was in the spoon shop of Robert Wallace at Quinnipiac, where he received eight dollars per month and board, and continued two years. For . several years lie was employed in the axle shop of Henry Ives, at Hamden, and was subsequently with the Brockett Axle Co. After a visit to Philadelphia, he went to New Bedford, Mass., and shipped as blacksmith on a whaling vessel for a voyage of three years in the Arctic ocean. During part of this service, he acted as boat steerer, in pursuit of the whale. A brief visit to his native place, during which he worked in a bolt shop, followed, and then he went to Boston and was employed during the Civil war by the Spencer Rifle Co. Having been tendered a position in the machine department of the bolt shop of Lampson & Woodruff, at Mount Carmel, he returned to that place and continued with the plant three years after it was removed to Southington and operated by the Peck, Stow & Wilcox Co., being there a contractor in the bolt department. He next spent three years as superin- tendent of the bolt factory of Bradley & Lewis, at Cleveland, Ohio. Disposing of his Southington property, he engaged in the restaurant business at New Haven for a year, and was subsequently a fish dealer at Wallingford for a like period. For the next two years he was superintendent of a bolt fac- tory of Lampson & Sessions, at Cleveland, Ohio, after which he returned to Wallingford and worked for the Simpson, Hall & Miller Co., until 1882.
For the past twenty years, he has held a position as machinist with the Edward Miller Co., of Merid- en, and is still active and efficient in the perform- ance of his duties. Of most genial disposition, he is popular with all classes of people, and performs the duties of a good citizen as he sees them. He is not bound by any partisan rule, but votes for his convictions at all times, and seeks to conform his daily life to the simple rule laid down by the Savior, to do as he would be done by. He is a member of Accanant Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Walling- ford, is devoted to his home and family, and highly respected in the community.
Mr. Perkins was married Feb. 23, 1864, to Miss Rosalie Farrell, a native of Boston, daugliter of Henry and Mary ( Macready ) Farrell. Henry Far- rell was one of the first settlers of Lawrence, Mass .. and was a son of George Farrell, a Scotch-Irish linen manufacturer. Mrs. Farrell's father, Henry Macready, was also of Scotch-Irish descent. Mr. Farrell was a blacksmith by trade, and both he and his wife died in the city of Lawrence. Mrs. Perkins was quite young when her parents settled at Lawrence, and was educated in the public schools of that city. She is a cultivated and refined woman. of liberal views, and makes her home the dearest place to her family.
The only child of Solon B. Perkins and wife is Louis Henry, born Jan. 11, 1865, at Lawrence,
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Mass., and educated in the public schools of Cleve- land, Wallingford and New Haven. For many years he has been employed in the factory of the Edward Miller Co., and is now foreman of the lamp department. His social nature has made him prominent in the fraternal and benevolent organ- izations of the town. He is a member of Meridian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. M .; Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M .; Hamilton Council, No. 22, R. & S. M., in which he is recorder; St. Elmo Com- mandery, No. 9, K. T .; and Pyramid Temple of the Mystic Shrine, of Bridgeport. He is also identified with Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. F., and Silver City Lodge, No. 90, N. E. O. P. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and has been several years secretary of its Sunday school. He is independent in politics, but devoted to every work promising to promote the general welfare.
LETSOME TERRELL WOOSTER. One of the most influential men of the Naugatuck Valley is Letsome Terrell Wooster, whose face is familiar in business, church and educational circles through- out the State. Mr. Wooster was born in Water- bury. He is the seventh in descent from Edward Wooster, who came across the water from England in 1630 and founded the family home in the green hills of Connecticut, whence this branch of the fam- ily has not migrated for over two and one-half cen- turies.
The Colonial hero, a man of great courage, deep piety and abiding patriotism, uprooted him- self for religion's sake from the haunts of his ancestors and, with a handful of brave compatriots of like convictions, established the first traces of Anglo-Saxon civilization along the shores of the Housatonic, the two towns which are glad to do him honor being Milford and Derby. It is not sur- prising that the descendants of Edward Wooster were early drawn into the Revolutionary movement and that we find them everywhere connected with the wars of that period. Thus it is that the sub- ject of this sketch points to an ancestry of six illustrious Revolutionary commissioned officers, among them Gen. David Wooster and the great lieutenant of French and Indian war fame, Gideon Hotchkiss.
- Letsome T. Wooster is likewise sixth in descent from Rev. John Bower, a graduate of Harvard Col- lege in the class of 1649 who became, in 1652, the first instructor in the classics in the school which eventually grew into Yale University, and who later, in 1672, became the first minister in Derby. where he performed the multifarious duties which fell to the lot of such a Colonial dignitary until his death, in 1688.
The two and one-half centuries which have inter- vened since the stirring Colonial days have served but to transfer. as through a single generation, the sterling characteristics of these early heroes to their lineal descendant, Letsome Terrell Wooster. The
sympathy and interest in the welfare of the com- munity that Mr. Wooster feels and substantially shows in his many benevolences are the outcome of generations of patriotic forbears who have devoted themselves to the cause of church and State in this locality since 1630. He has been from early man- hood closely identified with educational matters and is at the present time a trustee of Wesleyan Univer- sity. His interest in the cause of religion is one of the strong traits of his character and he has al- ways given munificently to churches throughout the Valley.
Mr. Wooster is the oldest and best-known brass manufacturer in the United States. He is the founder and principal stockholder of the Seymour Manufacturing Company, a prosperous concern brought to its present degree of success by Mr. Wooster's executive ability, inventive genius and rare knowledge of metals. He is a metallurgist of admitted power, using many of his own secret formulas, notably one for German silver, which make the product from his manufactory especially in demand by concerns requiring delicacy and pli- ability, as well as strength and durability, in their metals. His molds for casting brass have revolu- tionized that feature of this great manufacturing in- dustry, and innumerable devices of his own inven- tion for saving time and labor have made the Sey- mour Manufacturing Company a model of modern methods in its unsurpassed capacity for business.
Mr. Wooster's pre-eminence in the business af- fairs of the Naugatuck Valley is recognized. Early in life he was prevailed upon by the president of the Waterbury Brass Company to abandon his chosen career of mechanical engineer and engage in the manufacture of brass. This was in 1852. He sub- sequently went to Torrington with Hon. Lyman W. Coe, and with him organized the Coe Brass Com- pany, remaining as manager for eight years. For the last twenty years he has been associated with his brother in Seymour, and is officially connected with the following concerns in that town: The Seymour Manufacturing Company, the Seymour Electric Light Company, the H. A. Mathews Com- pany and the Rimmon Manufacturing Company.
FRANK S. ANDREW. For generations the Andrew family have been residents of New Haven county, and for a third of a century the name has been one of prominence in the commercial circles of the city of New Haven, the name being particularly well known through all this section on account of the extensive business, in the meat and provision line, conducted by the establishments of F. S. An- drew & Co., C. C. Andrew & Co., and H. L. Andrew & Co., at Nos. 183 to 197 State street. The last named firm has retired from business.
Frank S. Andrew, the founder of this business, has long been an influential citizen and prominent business man of New Haven. Born Nov. 21, 1841, in the town of Naugatuck, he is a son of the late
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Samuel and Salina (Smith) Andrew, and grandson of William Andrew. Samuel Andrew was born in 1800, and after his marriage settled in the town of Orange, where he resided until the latter part of the 'thirties, when he moved to Oxford. He died in 1875 in the village of Naugatuck. Five children were born to Samuel Andrew and wife: Samuel N .; Caroline A., widow of B. Booth, of New Hav- en; Esther L., deceased ; George S., also deceased ; and Frank S.
Frank S. Andrew attended the public schools of Naugatuck and at intervals clerked in the store of his brother, George S., who for years was a prom- inent merchant in that town. He was occupied in clerking the greater part of the time until 1855, when he came to New Haven, and for two years was clerk and errand boy in the store of B. Booth. Returning to Naugatuck in 1857, he was for about four years a bookkeeper for the firm of H. Stevens & Co., manufacturers of carriages. Following this, for a short time, he traveled for a Philadelphia busi- ness house through Massachusetts. He taught school in Red Oak district, in the town of Oxford, Conn., during one winter, and soon after opened a store in Naugatuck, Conn. The first week's sales amounted to five dollars and sixty-seven cents. His energy and push were soon felt in the business, which rapidly increased until the weekly sales ap- proximated from eight hundred to one thousand dol- lars. Mr. Andrew carried on this general store until 1867, when he disposed of the business and returned to New Haven, in which city he was employed as a salesman in the pork packing establishment of William Hull & Co. In 1868 he associated himself in the pork packing and provision business with Ansel Hurlburt, under the firm name of Andrew & Hurlburt, and managed an extensive trade. In 1872 these gentlemen erected a large pork-packing house, and they continued in business together until 1874, when Mr. Andrew purchased his partner's interest, and later the firm became F. S. Andrew & Co., our subject taking as partners two of his clerks, L. C. Bates, now of L. C. Bates & Co., and B. A. Booth, now of the Booth Meat Co., all of New Haven. Their establishment was destroyed by fire in 1883, but was soon rebuilt by the new firm. In the course of the intervening years the business has grown largely, through the enterprise, industry and good management of the chief head, Frank S. An- drew, and the several branches as given above under different titles, have been added. These houses do an extensive wholesale and retail business in meats. provisions, butter, eggs, cheese, etc. Mr. Andrew has the reputation of being a broad-minded, liberal and progressive gentleman, and has ever taken a deep interest in the growth and advancement of New Haven. During his third of a century's active business life in New Haven he has been connected with various outside enterprises, and figured quite extensively in the city's affairs. Mr. Andrew was one of the incorporators and for a time a director
in the New Haven Co-operative Loan Association, which is now out of business. He has been a large holder of real estate and of stocks, and is a member of the New York Produce and Mercantile Ex- change. Politically Mr. Andrew is a Democrat, but while ever greatly interested in public affairs, he has cared little for political preferment. How- ever, for a number of years he held the office of selectman in New Haven, and for several years of that time served as president of the board. Mainly through his efforts "Springside Home" was given its present location, Mr. Andrew doing practically all the negotiating for the farm, on which this grand institution of the city is located. It was during his service as selectman that the eastern city limits were extended, annexing Fair Haven, Morris Cove, Light House Point, and South End. This addi- tion to the city was bitterly fought, and at the time, the officials who were instrumental in bring- ing it about came in for an abundance of censure from the less foresighted. The wisdom of, and ad- vantages from, this annexation have long been evi- dent, and its one time opposers soon afterward became its most ready sanctioners. In 1882 Mr. Andrew was declared elected mayor of New Haven, and received his certificate of election. This elec- tion was contested in the courts and after a pro- tracted hearing his opponent was seated, though our subject had many friends who stood by him faith- fully. For nearly six years he served the city of New Haven as police commissioner, and for sev- eral terms acted as president of that board. During his connection with that portion of the city's gov- ernment he was a leader in many movements that were then new, and which the less progressive op- posed. The judgment and foresight of those in favor of them will be evident when it is stated that these new ideas included the conduit system, the Veteran Reserve and the Police Pension Bill, and other features in that department that remained permanent fixtures. The outlying police districts were established, enabling members of the force to report at nearer stations, thus obviating the neces- sity of going long distances to report at head- quarters, and rendering the service much better. The police department made rapid strides toward advancement during Mr. Andrew's connection therewith. In all his public service Mr. Andrew has taken the same business-like interest in his duties that he takes in his own affairs. He is at present a member of the Civil Service Board of New Haven, for examination of all municipal employes, and has been secretary of that board for years.
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