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 2 > Part 51
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(V) James Augur, son of Hezekiah, spent his youth in the home of his parents and worked with his father at the carpenter's trade. At the age of twenty-one he went to work in the Armory at Whit- neyville. He had a military turn of mind, and al- though never actively engaged in warfare, belonged for many years to the Governor's Foot Guards and aided in fortifying Beacon Hill during the war of 1812. On May 6, 1819, he married Almyra A. Ford, granddaughter of Deacon Moses Ford, and they were spared to celebrate their golden wedding. He built a house in Whitney avenue and lived there until 1850, when they moved to the farm on the northern slope of Mill Rock, which he had bought and cleared some years before. After that his attention was devoted entirely to fruit raising and the nursery business, in which he was very successful. Politi- cally he was an ardent Republican and took part in every presidential election from the time of Mon- roe to Grant's second term. He was a member of the North Church (so-called at that time), for many years, until he withdrew to the Whitneyville Church, which he had materially aided in erecting, and of which he was a prominent and efficient men- ber until his death, which occurred Aug. 19, 1873.
James Minott Augur, who was for many years a shoe dealer in Chapel street. New Haven, was a man in his day honored for his sterling integrity and his genial manner won for him hosts of friends. He was born in Whitneyville Oct. 16, 1821, and
obtained his education in the Lancasterian School in New Haven. On Nov. 15, 1850, he was married to Esther Morrell, of Northampton, a lady of re- markable beauty of character. In 1864 and 1865 he was a councilman of the city of New Haven. He was a member and deacon of the Church of the Redeemer, and as superintendent of the Sunday- school of that church ( which office he filled for a number of years) was highly esteemed. At one time he belonged to the Second Company, Gov- ernor's Horse Guards, and held office in the com- pany. He died in New Haven Dec. 27, 1875, leav- ing a widow and five children: Frederick Minott, James Morrell, Nellie Newkirk, Martha Elizabeth ( Mrs. Burton A. Davis) and Esther Helena. Mr. Angur was buried in the Whitneyville Cemetery, in the Augur lot, with his brothers, George and Charles, and his parents, James and Almyra A. Augur.
THE DAVIS FAMILY. For more than fifty years this has been a noted family, not only in Meriden, but conspicuous in the professional activ- ities of the State, where father and sons have held high rank in both the practice of medicine and the law.
The late Timothy Fisher Davis, the son of Eli- phaz and Hannah ( Sawyer) Davis, was born Marchi 13, ISIO, in Marlboro, Mass., and was in the sixth generation from Dolor Davis, one of the original settlers at Barnstable, Mass., in 1634. Timothy F. Davis attended the common schools of his native town and was then apprenticed to a trade in Spring- field, Mass. In 1837 he began the study of medi- cine in the office of Dr. Riley, of Goshen, Conn., and as he had a wife and a family, he continued to work at his trade while engaged in his preparation for the career of a physician. Subsequently he en- gaged in practice at Goshen and Litchfield, and in 1846 removed to Plymouth, where he built a home and bought a drug store. There he obtained a fine and extensive practice in the town and about it, be- ing frequently called to Wolcott, Bristol, Bethile- hem and Watertown, and the adjoining towns. On the death of his old friend, Dr. Allen, of Meriden, the widow of that gentleman urged him to come to that city and take the practice which her husband had had. This he did, beginning in Meriden in 1850, and bringing his family in the following year. For more than seventeen years he was a successful prac- titioner in Meriden, "a prudent and skillful opera- tor, a careful and discriminating prescriber, ever im- proving by the lessons of experience."
Dr. Davis received in 1843 a diploma from the Botanic Medical Society of Connecticut, and in 1850 an honorary diploma, being at that time the vice-president of the society. Afterward he was its president. Dr. Davis was one of the founders of the State Eclectic Medical Society and was at dif- ferent times its secretary, treasurer, vice-president, president and one of its censors. Socially Dr. Da-
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vis was a genial, kind and companionable gentle- man, liberal in money matters, with a profound con- tempt for money hoarding, enjoying the passing moments and believed in getting the most out of life. By a great number of the best people of the community he was personally esteemed both as a friend and as a physician. Not a man of fluent speech, and somewhat reticent, he was a close lis- tener and would attend with eagerness and delight to hear men of sense and information talk. Fond of horticulture, he evinced much skill in the cultiva- tion of his land, and exemplified the old saying, a "little land well tilled."
Dr. Davis died Feb. 24, 1870, as the result of a cancer on his upper lip, and "during his long and distressing illness not a shadow of distrust or fear passed over his soul. He felt that his life was with Christ in God, and death would not disturb it. Al- ways his language was, 'I am ready.'" Dr. Davis belonged to the Masonic fraternity and was buried under the auspices of that society.
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Dr. Davis was married in November, 1832, to Miss Mary Parsons, who died April 1, 1834, in Pleasant Valley, Conn., leaving a daughter, Mary N. M., who became the wife of Edward Miner in 1853. Dr. Davis was married, second, in 1836 to Miss Moriva Hatch, of Springfield, Mass., and to them were born the following children: (1) Julia, Lom in April, 1838, died in infancy; (2) Charles H. S .: (3) Julia M., born in July, 1844; (4) Wilbur Fiske, born in September, 1846, died the following July ; (5) Wilbur Fiske (2).
CHARLES HENRY STANLEY DAVIS, M. D., born in Goshen, Conn., March 2, 1840, is of the seventh generation from Dolor Davis, whose name ap- pears in the opening of this review, and acquired his education in the Meriden public schools, prepar- ing for college under private tutors, intending to enter the Sophomore year and to bring the Freshman studies up to the requirement. On the breaking out of the Civil war he was for two years in the service of the United States government. After a brief business experience succeeding this in New York, he entered the office of Dr. William Baker. where he prepared for entrance to the medical school, in the meantime officiating as a teacher in one of the night schools. In due time he was gradu- ated from the Medical Department of the Univer- sity of New York, and spent the year following in Boston, where he took a special course in Biology and Microscopy at Harvard. The following win- ter he attended lectures at the University of Mary- land, and then located at Meriden, succeeding his father in his extensive practice. After two years of hard work Dr. Davis went abroad to study and travel, visiting England, Ireland, Scotland. Holland. Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. For several months he followed hospital practice in Paris and London. Returning to Meriden he has since had a large and lucrative practice, ex- tending to the surrounding towns.
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Dr. Davis was one of the founders of the City Medical Society and for many years served as its secretary. He belongs to the New Haven county association and the Connecticut State Medical So- ciety. For eighteen years he has been the attend- ing physician of the Curtis Home for Old Ladies and Orphans, and for five years was the attending physician of the State School for Boys. When the City Hospital was organized he was appointed one of the attending physicians, but was obliged to re- fuse the position. During his practice Dr. Davis has been present at the birth of over five hundred children, but for want of time has been obliged to give up that branch of his practice. He has exam- ined over one thousand applicants for life insur- ance. Dr. Davis has been a frequent contributor to the medical press.
When Dr. Davis first went to New York he en- tered into partnership with Charles H. Thomas, a well known philologist and translator, and opened a book store for the sale of Oriental and classical books, they being the only firm at that time which made a specialty of philological works. Several gentlemen interested in philology were accustomed to gather weekly in a back room connected with this store, and here the Philological Society was or- ganized. Dr. Brown, who translated the Bible into Assamese, was the president, Dr. Scott, afterward a missionary to Burmah, was vice-president, and Dr. Davis was corresponding secretary. Under Dr. Brown's guidance, Dr. Davis took up the study of Hebrew and Syriac, which he followed in after years with Arabic, Assyrian, ancient Egyptian, the old Persian tongues and the Celtic dialects, always being an omnivorous reader. Before his eighteenth year Dr. Davis was the owner of over five hundred volumes. This library now exceeds six thousand volumes and is very complete in Oriental languages and literature. In his eighteenth year he contrib- uted every week for a year a column of literary notes to the New York Chronicle. He was also a con- tributor to the Round Table and the Saturday Press, the only distinctly literary papers of the time. In 1870 he published a history of Wallingford and Meriden, an octavo volume of nearly a thousand pages, and containing some sixty genealogies. Shortly after was published his work. "The Voice as a Musical Instrument," and also his work on the "Classification, Training and Education of the Fee- ble-Minded. Imbecile and Idiotic." Many articles on this subject were translated into Spanish and were published in El Repetario Medico.
Dr. Davis has for eighteen years been the secre- tary and corresponding secretary of the Scientific Association and has edited its eight volumes of "Transactions." He has attended to the exchange with over three hundred home and foreign societies. For fifteen years he has edited Biblia, a journal of Biblical and Oriental archaeology, the organ of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, the Greco-Roman Fund and the Palestine Exploration Fund. In con-
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nection with the Rev. Dr. Coburn, Dr. Davis wrote a "History of Ancient Egypt in the Light of Mod- ern Discoveries," with an introduction by the Rev. Dr. William C. Winslow. This is the finest work on the subject ever published, containing some four hundred folio pages and nearly one thousand illus- trations. In 1894 Dr. Davis published an edition of the "Egyptian Bock of the Dead." This unique work contains the seventy-nine pages of the great Louvre Papyrus and the twenty plates of the great Turin Papyrus, with a complete translation of one hundred and sixty-seven chapters, with full intro- ductory notes. Dr. Davis has written a Grammar of the old Persian language ; an Introductory Gram- mar of the New Testament Greek : "Lucretius. Poet and Epicurean": a work on Roman Stoicism, with selections from Epictetus. Marcus Aurelius and Seneca, and several other works. For some years he has been engaged in a translation of the Koran from the Arabic, and has nearly completed a Grammar of the Irish language. The Doctor has done all this work while following a laborious pro- fession, which demands nearly all his time, but he also keeps abreast of the times and receives all the principal monthlies and quarterlies published in this country and in Europe devoted to medicine, litera- ture, science and art.
Dr. Davis has never greatly interested himself in politics beyond the ends of good government, but he has filled nearly all the town and city offices. In 1873, 1885 and 1886 he represented the town in the State Legislature, where he served on important committees. In 1887 he was nominated for State Senator, but failed of election by thirty-four votes. In his own town he was 200 ahead of his rival. In 1887 he was elected mayor of the city by a large majority. and again the following year, and declined a third nomination. During his first term in the office he was instrumental in the organization of three build- ing and loan associations, serving as president in two and trustee in the third. Over a thousand per- sons became members of these associations. In 1872 Dr. Davis was elected a member of the board of edu- cation, and has continued a member of that board to the present time. For the greater part of this long period he has been chairman or president of the board. Since the organization of the high school he has been chairman of the school committee. He has also purchased the library of over 3.000 vol- umes with funds furnished for that purpose. In 1891 Dr. Davis was appointed by Gov. Coffin a trus- tee of the School for Boys, and for five years was treasurer of the institution and secretary of the board of trustees. In 1898 he was elected city treas- urer, which included the handling of the money belonging to the water fund; he declined a second nomination.
Fraternally Dr. Davis is a thirty-second-degree Mason and a Shriner, a member of the Odd Fellows. the Knights of Pythias. Elks and a number of other secret and benevolent societies. He also be-
longs to some twenty-five scientific archæological. an- thropological, literary and historical societies in this country and in Europe. He is one of the local hon- orary secretaries of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, and at the Chicago World's Fair he was appointed a member of the Auxiliary Committee on Archae- ology and Egyptology. In addition to his travels in Europe he has visited New Mexico, Arizona. Cal- ifornia. New Brunswick, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and a great part of the United States. On Sept. 23, 1869, Dr. Davis was married to Caroline Elizabeth, daughter of George W. Harris, and has one son, Henry Winter Davis, who married Annie Laurie, danghter of Howard L. Hine, Esq., of Brunswick, Georgia.
JUDGE WILBUR FISKE DAVIS, son of the late Dr. Davis, was born July 25. 1848. in Plymouth, Conn., and received his literary education in the public schools and the academy at Meriden, where he be- gan the study of law in the office of Judge Smith. This was in 1868, and he spent a year after this in the Yale Law School. On the death of Judge Dut- ton, then at the head of the Law Department of Yale, he retired from Yale and entered the Harvard Law School, from which he was graduated in 1870. In September of that year he was admitted to the Bar in New Haven, Conn., at once opening an office in Meriden. For nearly a decade; beginning with 1873. Mr. Davis served as clerk of the Meri- den City Court. For the civil business of the city of Meriden he was attorney from 1887 to 1890. In the latter year he was elected Judge of Probate for the district of Meriden, which office he held until 1893. He is a successful lawyer, and as a citizen is held in high esteem. For five years he was cor- poration counsel of Meriden.
Judge Davis was married May 29, 1874, to Miss Adelaide Stevens, a daughter of Joshua and Jabe ( Morris) Stevens, of Chicopee Falls. Mass. Their children are as follows: Wilbur F., Jr .. and Robert S. Judge Davis belongs to St. Elmo Com- mandery, No. 9, K. T., of Meriden.
CAPT. DANIEL GOFFE PHIPPS. retired, of New Haven, not only descends from a distinguished and historic family, but in his own life has a rec- I ord of unusual interest and full of stirring inci- dents.
Born June 20, 1820, in New Haven, Capt. Phipps is a son of Capt. Solomon and Esther ( Peck) Phipps, and a descendant in the sixth generation from Deacon Henry Peck, who was one of the orig- inal settlers of New Haven in the spring of 1638. Capt. Solomon Phipps was a descendant of James Phipps, who settled at Pemaquid ( now Phipps- bury), Maine, about 1621. Of this family was Sir. William Phipps, governor of Massachusetts under the charter of William and Mary. Our subject's line is through ( II) Solomon. of Charlestown, Mass .. who was born in 1619, and died July 25. 1671. His children : Elizabeth, born April 23, 1643; Solomon,
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Daniel Goffe Pifyus
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born in 1645: Samuel; and Joseph, born in 1651. [ Boston rec. ]
(III) Solomon Phipps, born in 1645. married Mary, daughter of Deputy Gov. Danforth. Chil- dren: Mary, born July 3. 1670 ; Solomon, Jan. 10, 1675; Thomas, Nov. 22, 1676 ( he graduated from Harvard College in 1695) : Elizabeth, Jan. 27, 16SI (died Feb. 27, 1681) ; Jonathan, Jan. 7, 1683; Eliz- abeth (2), June 5, 1684.
(IV) Solomon Phipps, born Jan. 10, 1675, was married Oct. 13, 1720, to Catherine Rouse, a sister of Capt. John Rouse, of the English navy, who did notable service in the Colonial wars.
(V) Capt. Solomon Phipps, their son, born Nov. 10, 1721, was married Sept. 3, 1747, to Abi- gail Goffe, granddaughter of Christopher Goffe, gent. [Suffolk rec.], and they had two children : Elizabeth, born June 10, 1749; and Daniel Goffe. born July 13, 1751. The Goffe family came to America early in the seventeenth century, and has been very prominent in New England. Thomas Goffe, of this family, was the owner of the "May- flower," and a magistrate of the Massachusetts Col- ony in 1629. In the English and American expedi-
tion against Cartagena in 1740, Capt. Daniel Goffe commanded one of the Massachusetts companies, and in the 3d battalion with him was Capt. Lawrence Washington, of Virginia. [ Harper's, Oct. 1896.] Capt. Solomon Phipps was very active in the Co- lonial wars, being with Sir Peter Warren at the siege of Louisburg, and in 1756 he was commander of the "Monckton." [Murdoch's hist. ] twenty guns, named after Gen. Monckton, governor of the Col- onies. He met his death March 26, 1758. in the fol- lowing tragic manner : His majesty's frigate. "Sutherland," was firing a salute in the harbor of Halifax, and one of the English officers present was Capt. Phipps, who was a nephew of John Rouse. the commander of the frigate. Capt. Phipps, while standing on the shore waiting for a boat to take him on board, was accidentally shot, in the presence of his seven-year-old son, Daniel Goffe Phipps, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. The ac- cident was the result of the neglect of the gunner to withdraw the ball from one of the guns, as was the custom on entering port, and this ball struck and instantly killed Capt. Phipps. [Wyman's Gen.]
(VI) Capt. Daniel Goffe Phipps, son of Capt. Solomon Phipps, was born July 13, 1751, in Boston, and early began a sea-faring life. He was one of that mob of men and boys who defied the English troops under Capt. Preston. He heard Capt. Pres- ton give the order to fire. and was near "Crispus Attucks." the first man killed in the Revolutionary war, when he fell. From the time of the "Boston Massacre" to the end of his life he was a warm sup- porter of the cause of the Colonies. When a boy he was one of the crew of that historic sloop "Lib- erty," belonging to Jolin Hancock. He was twice taken prisoner by the English, and was carried to Boston three days after the battle of Bunker Hill.
He was sent aboard the "Wallace" again, after much abuse ; was on the "Defence" in the severe battle with the "Sirius"; and then took command of the brig "Nancy," of fourteen guns. At this time he writes to Abraham Livingstone, of Charlestown, that "with a blessing and my good stout crew, I hope to capture a prize before the month is out." He succeeded and brought to port the English ship "Maccarone." One of the "Nancy's" guns is now in possession of the New Haven Historical Society, where it was placed by the present Daniel Goffe Phipps, grandson of the commander. Capt. Daniel Goffe Phipps was the first of the family in New Ha- ven, coming to that city in 1769. He became in- tercsted in the West India trade, and the owner of a number of vessels, one of which. captured by him from the British, he fitted out for the West India trade. He married Anna Townsend, sister of Eben- ezer Townsend, the owner of the "Neptune," which made the famous sea voyage of 1796-99. Children : Daniel Goffe, born in 1777: Elizabeth, in 1781 ; and Solomon, in 1784. Of these, Danicl Goffe married Esther Peck, daughter of Henry and Hannah (Lewis) Peck.
(VII) Capt. Solomon Phipps, son of Capt. Dan- iel Goffe Phipps, and the father of Capt. Daniel Goffe Phipps (2), was born in 1784, married Mrs. Esther ( Peck) Phipps, widow of his brother, Dan- iel Goffe Phipps. They had seven children. Capt. Phipps became a master and owner of vessels. and engaged in the West India trade. Later in life he opened a school on Meadow street, which attained a high standing in New Haven, where he taught navi- gation, surveying, drawing and French.
Daniel Goffe Phipps (2). son of Capt. Solomon and the subject proper of this sketch, followed in the footsteps of his ancestors. becoming a sailor and sea captain. Owing to the death of his father and family reverses, he was obliged at an early age to leave home, and for thirty years his life was crowded with adventure and varied experiences in all parts of the world-too many to be here given in detail. He began his seafaring life at the age of fifteen, on the bark "Condor." He was next on the ship "Illinois," from New York to Trieste, thence to Smyrna, where the vessel lay for three months. through the prevalence of the plague then raging there. While enroute home the ship was dismast- ed off the Western Islands. and the crew sub- jected to suffering for want of water and provisions. Following this experience he received. through the influence of his uncle, then Lieut. Peck. an appoint- ment as master's mate in the U. S. navy, and was ordered aboard the brig "Dolphin." which carried ten guns and cruised, during the winter of 1839-40, on the coast in aid of distressed vessels. Later, on the same vessel. on which he remained two years, young Phipps served in the Gulf of Mexico. While on the "North Carolina," he was a messmate of midshipman Spencer, son of the Secretary of War, who was afterward hanged for suspected in-
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tention of mutiny on board the brig "Somers." From the "Dolphin" Mr. Phipps was transferred respectively to the old frigate "Constitution," the "Pennsylvania," a line of battle ship of 120 guns, and to the U. S. brig "Truxton," then fitting out at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, under Commander Bruce. for the west coast of Africa, to assist in suppressing the slave trade. The "Truxton" arrived in the early part of 1843 at Monrovia, where. in addition to his regular duties, Mr. Phipps was assigned to the duty on the coast of obtaining meteorological data in be- half of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sci- ences. The English sloop-of-war "Ardent" and the brig "Truxton" united to capture two slavers, which lay 100 miles up the Rio Pongo, at Gordon's barra- coons. Arriving at the mouth of the river, they sent up a boat expedition with thirty men from the American vessel and fifty from the English, and were successful in making the capture. Mr. Phipps. who had command of the third cutter, was the first to board the prize "Spitfire," and the person nearest at that moment with his back toward him, he struck with the flat of his sword; as the man whirled they recognized each other. He was a mulatto boy by the name of Jackson, whom Mr. Phipps had often seen on the streets of New Haven.
The climate up the coast rivers was then deadly, and all but two of the thirty sailors who accompan- ied Phipps up the Rio Pongo took the coast fever. The associates and friends of Mr. Phipps on board the "Truxton" formed by coincidence rather a nota- ble group. The midshipmen's mess, to which he belonged, contained Creighton, son of Commodore Creighton ; Truxton, the grandson of the old Revo- lutionary commodore of that name; and Selim Woodworth, son of the author of the "Old Oaken Bucket." Among the officers of the ward room were Decatur Hurst, nephew of Com. Decatur ; and McDonough, son of another of the old heroes of 1812. On the return of the "Truxton," in 1846, Capt. Phipps resigned and took command of a ves- sel running between New Orleans and the Spanish Main, and during a voyage to St. Vincent encoun- tered the great hurricane of Sept., 1846, and was in its vortex. Again, on the night of Dec. 18. 1846, he was wrecked on the coast of Maine, the cold be- ing so severe on this occasion that seventeen persons froze to death during the night. Another of Capt. Phipps' experiences was that of 1841, while cruis- ing for pirates on the U. S. brig "Dolphin" on the south coast of Cuba. He was in sight of Cape Ni- cola Mole, at the time that town, a place of 3.000 in- habitants, was partially engulfed by the great earthquake of that year. In 1843 Mr. Phipps aided in the suppression of the "Know-nothing" riots, be- ing ordered from the Norfolk Navy Yard to take shore duty at Philadelphia.
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